The Nuclear Company Proposes Six-Reactor, 6.6 GW Campus in Kentucky, Targets 2028 Construction Start

Since The Nuclear Company (TNC) announced Prosperity One on Oct. 21, the proposal has drawn attention for its sheer size: up to six Westinghouse AP1000 reactors on the Ohio River in Lewis County, Kentucky, producing roughly 6.6 gigawatts.

If all six units were built, the campus would be the largest nuclear power site in the country, ahead of Georgia's four-unit Plant Vogtle. It would also be the first commercial reactor in Kentucky.

It is a proposal, not a project with permits.

What TNC is proposing

The plan is phased. The first phase calls for two AP1000s. TNC says it has site control and will start site development work while pursuing the federal approvals it needs to begin construction in 2028.

Initial work includes site characterization, geotechnical investigations, environmental assessments, transmission interconnection planning and preparation for federal nuclear licensing. TNC says it will go through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's established licensing process.

The site is Carrs Bottom, near Vanceburg. ZeroHedge reports the land was once assembled for a coal plant that was abandoned, and that it sits about half a mile from a 765 kV line feeding the PJM grid.

The landowner is Sam Howard, a lifelong Lewis County resident and founder of Trace Creek Construction. He is partnering with TNC on the project.

"I have nine grandchildren, and all of them live in Lewis County," Howard said. "I want them to have the opportunity to stay." He said the county's unemployment rate has been among the highest in the state for years and that a project like this could bring jobs "for generations of Eastern Kentucky residents."

The local piece

Lewis County is set to be among the first Kentucky counties to ask for designation as a "nuclear ready community" under the Kentucky Nuclear Energy Development Authority. According to TNC, county leaders unanimously launched that effort in July 2026, held public input meetings, and earlier this month voted overwhelmingly to submit the county's filing.

TNC's Chief Nuclear Officer, Joe Klecha, said the company wants to deliver "lasting jobs, a stronger tax base, and reliable power for Kentucky." Klecha is a former licensed senior reactor operator with 33 years in the field, from Navy submarines to construction and operational readiness roles at Vogtle Units 3 and 4.

The company's press release also frames the project as answering President Trump's call to accelerate American energy production. That is TNC's characterization of its own project.

The scale, and the gap between announcement and approval

At about 6.6 GW, Prosperity One would equal more than a third of Kentucky's roughly 18 GW of generating capacity, ZeroHedge calculated. ZeroHedge also notes the state only lifted its decades-old restrictions on new nuclear construction in 2017.

The same outlet points out that TNC has not yet filed anything with the NRC or PJM, calling a 2028 construction start "ambitious." No regulator has announced a review of the project.

There is also a track record to weigh. Cost overruns on the Vogtle and VC Summer builds pushed Westinghouse into bankruptcy in 2017. South Carolina utilities sank about $9 billion into the two VC Summer units before abandoning them, according to ZeroHedge.

ZeroHedge also wrote in April that an $80 billion Westinghouse deal struck with Washington six months earlier had produced no visible construction. That is the outlet's assessment as of that date.

TNC's cost argument

TNC's answer is repetition. Prosperity One is a greenfield site rather than an expansion of an existing plant, and the company is betting that building the same reactor over and over drives costs down.

Heatmap reported that Vogtle Unit 4 came online roughly 30% cheaper and faster than Unit 3. Klecha expects at least that at Prosperity One. "The 30%, I would say, is the floor on the savings from the first unit to the second unit," he said.

Klecha's Vogtle experience is central to the pitch. TNC's services division says it has performed maintenance at more than 40 percent of America's operating nuclear plants.

TNC's other bets

TNC emerged from stealth mode in July 2024. In March it launched The Nuclear Company Services, which offers maintenance and outage support to U.S. reactor operators.

In May it partnered with Brookfield, which ZeroHedge reports owns 51% of Westinghouse, to form a company focused on developing Westinghouse reactor projects. Its first job is managing completion of the two partially built VC Summer AP1000 units in South Carolina.

ZeroHedge reports Brookfield has told the board of state-owned Santee Cooper it will make a final investment decision on those units by March 31, 2028. That would involve paying Santee Cooper $2.7 billion for the unfinished reactors.

That date lands in the same year TNC wants to start building in Kentucky. TNC has not said how it would finance or sequence two large AP1000 efforts at once.

The next concrete steps are Lewis County's filing with the Kentucky Nuclear Energy Development Authority and TNC's first submissions to the NRC and PJM. Neither has been reported as filed.