A vast nuclear reservation that once fueled America’s atomic arsenal is preparing for an unprecedented industrial makeover.

Federal officials have launched a formal bidding process to lease thousands of acres at the Hanford site to private industry. The goal is to transform land originally cleared for wartime weapons production into a commercial center for clean power, high-performance computing, and advanced materials.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) confirmed it is offering up to 3,700 acres under its American Energy Hubs program. The move marks a pivot toward economic revival for an area long defined by complex environmental cleanup.

The solicitation begins with an initial 1,876-acre plot known as Tract 1. A neighboring 1,249-acre plot, designated Tract 2, could also open depending on demand. Both parcels sit along the Columbia River, a critical waterway in southeastern Washington state.

The designated acreage borders another major low-carbon energy scheme. Just to the north, a consortium comprising Amazon, X-energy, and regional utility Energy Northwest is developing the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility. That project plans to deploy up to 12 Xe-100 high-temperature, gas-cooled small modular reactors (SMRs).

Locating new commercial infrastructure alongside next-generation nuclear facilities provides a strategic advantage for power-hungry operations, particularly data centers and heavy industrial manufacturing.

Modern data centers and advanced factories use electricity in immense quantities. For this reason, regulators have introduced safeguards. Bidders must follow a “build, bring, or buy” rule for their entire energy supply.

Tenants cannot simply draw from the existing regional grid if doing so strains local supply.

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