Critical infrastructure below. Community space above.

Research signal, not a 20 MW forecast: NLR's 2026 modeled Virginia 1-GW Cold UTES case projected about 70% lower annual electricity cost for cooling and a 200-MW lower peak cooling-electric load. Cold UTES stores cold underground during off-peak periods and dispatches it during peak periods; the modeled cost reduction is not the same as a 70% reduction in annual kWh, and it is not a measured result for this project.

For a continuously operating 20 MW IT load, the IT equipment alone uses about 175.2 GWh/year, with nearly all of that electrical input ultimately becoming heat that must be rejected. Ground-loop sizing, heat recharge/rejection, pumps, backup cooling, and hourly tariffs require site-specific engineering. The sensitivity above excludes demand charges, taxes, water, and capital costs.

Sources: DOE, Geothermal Heat Pumps; ASHRAE, 2021 Equipment Thermal Guidelines reference card; USGS, Geothermal Gradients in the Conterminous United States; NLR, Cold UTES data-center model results; NLR Phase 1 Cold UTES report.

Optional independent explainer: Apex Builds video on Project Pele, portable reactors, and HALEU/TRISO. This is third-party material, not an official BWXT, DOE, DoD, or NRC source. Its broader civilian-use discussion is forward-looking; claims about commercial availability, performance, price, licensing, and safety are not used as verified project facts or calculator inputs.

What pricing is public? BWXT's 2022 issuer release described an approximately $300 million cost-type contract, depending on options, to design, manufacture, and deliver a first-of-a-kind government prototype. That amount is not a commercial unit price and must not be divided by output or treated as repeat-unit CapEx. I did not verify a public commercial purchase price, site-installed cost, vendor O&M rate, or fuel/security cost. The calculator therefore leaves annual cost blank until you enter an explicit assumption. Fuel availability is also a diligence risk: GAO reported in 2026 that near-term HALEU supply may not meet demand.

Potential value—not a turnkey solution. If a future product is commercially available, licensed, and economic, firm on-site generation could diversify the supply mix and support resilience; Project Pele's transportable format is a logistics feature. These are conditional possibilities, not established benefits for this site. One 1.5 MWe module cannot make a 20 MW IT campus self-contained, and the calculator assumes no grid-displacement, reliability, emissions, or lifecycle-cost benefit.

What it means for the 20 MW concept. At the current calculator's 20 MW critical-IT default and PUE range of 1.30–1.45, the modeled facility load is 26–29 MW. One 1.5 MWe module equals about 5.2–5.8% of that nameplate load; 18–20 modules would match it on arithmetic alone, before reserves, auxiliary loads, derating, maintenance, outages, UPS, or backup. Nuclear generation does not eliminate data-center cooling: reactor and server waste heat still need engineered rejection. This screen does not assume a reactor can be placed inside the cavern; a separate, accessible, site-engineered power facility is only a concept for evaluation.

Safety and approvals. The Project Pele test is non-commercial and proceeds under DOE authorization at INL; that is not a commercial site license. The NRC states that commercial reactor design, siting, construction, and operation involve licensing and regulatory oversight, including public involvement. TRISO's coated-particle design is a safety feature, not a promise of zero risk. A real installation would require its own regulator/jurisdiction determination, environmental and emergency planning, security, fuel transport and disposition, insurance, staffing, and decommissioning analysis. The two outputs marked with an asterisk are simple energy-value sensitivities before those costs and are not savings, LCOE, project returns, or an investment forecast.

Sources: BWXT, Project Pele status, output, format and schedule; BWXT, 2025 fuel-manufacturing update; Idaho National Laboratory, first TRISO fuel delivery; DoD environmental review, prototype envelope and demonstration pathway; BWXT issuer release, 2022 prototype contract; GAO, 2026 HALEU supply review; BWXT, TRISO fuel design; NRC, commercial new-reactor regulation; EIA, electricity-price reference used in the calculator.