Amentum Savannah River AI Data Center Watch

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration has selected Amentum to enter phased-lease negotiations for an AI data-center and energy-generation project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The proposal pairs a 1-gigawatt AI data center with approximately 2 gigawatts of dedicated onsite generation, initially using natural gas with a stated path toward advanced nuclear energy.

This is a selection for negotiations, not a final lease award and not an open construction bid. A final project still depends on successful lease terms, environmental review, safety and security evaluations, permits, interconnection, financing, engineering, and federal approvals. That stage discipline matters: the opportunity is real and source-backed, but most building-level packages have not yet been named.

Amentum confirms it leads the selected development consortium. DC BLOX confirms it is the consortium's digital-infrastructure partner. Those are the clearest company roles available today. The reviewed sources do not name the other energy partners, generation developer, gas supplier, advanced-nuclear partner, utility or transmission path, data-center GC, EPCM, architect, engineer, electrical contractor, low-voltage integrator, or commissioning authority.

Project fact	Source-backed detail	LVN read
Stage	Selected for lease negotiations	Not a final award or open bid.
Data-center scale	Proposed 1 GW	Building-level IT load is unknown.
Onsite generation	Approximately 2 GW	Supporting power, not IT load.
Development lead	Amentum	Selected consortium lead.
Digital partner	DC BLOX	Source-backed infrastructure role.
Site	Savannah River Site	Final tract has not been selected.

NNSA's earlier request for proposals defined the commercial structure. The private partner must finance, build, operate, maintain, and ultimately decommission the infrastructure. It must also obtain utility interconnection, complete permitting, and satisfy federal safety, security, and environmental requirements. DOE is the federal landowner and lease authority; it is not the future general contractor for the data-center buildings.

The public Savannah River AI project briefing identified ten potential tracts totaling 3,103 acres. The same material anticipated leasing no more than roughly 300 acres across those candidate tracts. Until negotiations identify the selected parcel, the Signal record uses the broader Savannah River Site location and should not be treated as a final construction entrance, laydown area, or data-hall footprint.

DOE's site profile places the 310-square-mile federal reservation across Aiken, Barnwell, and Allendale counties near Aiken. That geography creates an unusual project environment. New data-center, power, fiber, water, road, security, and support infrastructure will have to fit within a working federal nuclear-materials complex with existing missions, contractors, environmental obligations, controlled access, emergency planning, and site-specific safety rules.

The capacity distinction should stay explicit. One gigawatt is the proposed data-center capacity. Approximately 2 gigawatts is the dedicated onsite generation plan. Neither figure discloses the critical IT load of a specific data hall or building. Public sources also do not provide building count, square footage, rack density, cooling topology, water demand, substation configuration, generator technology, storage capacity, fiber entrances, or commissioning phases.

Company / agency	Source-backed role	Current limit
Amentum	Selected consortium lead	Company confirmation
DC BLOX	Digital-infrastructure partner	Company confirmation
DOE / NNSA	Landowner and lease authority	Federal selection
Savannah River Site	Federal project location	Site profile
Energy partners	Not fully disclosed	Do not infer assignments.
Building contractors	Not publicly named	Packages remain open signals.

Amentum brings engineering, program-management, nuclear-operations, and federal-site experience. That capability supports its selection, but it does not prove Amentum will self-perform every engineering, construction, or technology package. Future project companies, teaming partners, prime contracts, design appointments, plan-room notices, hiring, and permits will determine how the work is divided.

DC BLOX's named role is especially relevant to LVN. Digital infrastructure at this scale reaches far beyond servers. The campus will need carrier connectivity, diverse outside-plant routes, secure network rooms, operations networks, power and cooling telemetry, physical security, life safety, controls, monitoring, and documented commissioning. DC BLOX should be monitored for procurement notices and partner announcements without claiming packages that its release does not identify.

The power program may move before the first data-center building. Approximately 2 GW of onsite generation could require generation controls, substation communications, protection and control, utility fiber, metering, station LANs, SCADA, EPMS, cybersecurity boundaries, remote alarms, physical security, fire detection, grounding, time synchronization, and integrated acceptance testing. Those scopes may sit with separate energy, utility, electrical, controls, security, and commissioning teams.

The stated transition from natural gas toward advanced nuclear energy is a long-range development direction, not a named reactor award. Reviewed public sources do not identify a reactor vendor, nuclear developer, gas-turbine supplier, pipeline partner, fuel contract, generation EPC, or schedule for that transition. Contractors should separate confirmed negotiation-stage facts from later technology choices.

Low-voltage lane	Likely requirement	Watch signal
Fiber / OSP	Carrier, campus, utility, and generation links	Easements, duct banks, splice and test packages.
Structured cabling	Operations, support, controls, and data halls	Standards, pathways, labeling, certification.
Security	Federal perimeter and critical facilities	Badging, gates, access control, CCTV, SOC.
Fire alarm	Data, power, storage, and support spaces	Detection, interfaces, sequence testing.
BMS / EPMS / SCADA	Power, cooling, and remote operations	Point lists, networks, integrations, trends.
Commissioning	Integrated mission-critical turnover	CxA award, scripts, witness plans, training.

Fiber and outside plant should be treated as early enabling infrastructure. A multi-tract federal campus needs diverse long-haul carrier routes, utility and generation communications, secure campus backbones, redundant building entrances, maintenance holes, handholes, duct banks, meet-me rooms, splice plans, route documentation, and optical testing. The final parcel and carrier strategy will determine which corridors are real.

Structured cabling will extend into operations buildings, security posts, warehouses, maintenance spaces, offices, controls networks, wireless systems, environmental monitoring, and data-hall support. AI fabrics may be tenant-furnished, but owner systems still need pathways, cabinets, labeling, certification, as-builts, and clean turnover records. No current source names a cabling standard or contractor.

Physical security will be more complex than a normal industrial site. The eventual system may need to coordinate DOE property controls with developer, operator, tenant, energy, and contractor zones. Watch for credentialing, badging, visitor management, guard facilities, vehicle barriers, biometric readers, access control, CCTV, video analytics, intercom, duress, key management, security-operations integration, and retention requirements.

Fire and life safety will cross data halls, electrical rooms, generation equipment, fuel systems, battery or storage systems, cooling plants, offices, warehouses, and outside support infrastructure. Detection, suppression interfaces, supervisory points, emergency-power behavior, mass notification, monitoring, cause-and-effect matrices, integrated tests, and authority approvals will create multiple coordination boundaries.

BMS, EPMS, SCADA, DCIM, and OT networking will need a clear division of responsibility. Generation and substations require plant controls and telemetry. Data centers require electrical and mechanical visibility. Operators require alarms, trends, dashboards, failure logic, and historical data. Federal security rules may add segmentation, access, logging, and device-hardening requirements.

DAS, public-safety radio, cellular, Wi-Fi, and private-wireless requirements are not yet public. The scale of the reservation and its mix of industrial, secure, energy, and data-center buildings could create coverage challenges. Requirements will depend on jurisdictional radio tests, emergency-response planning, carrier strategy, federal security controls, and the selected tract.

Grounding and bonding will connect generation, substations, switchgear, UPS systems, cooling systems, structural steel, lightning protection, cable tray, racks, telecom rooms, OSP entrances, control panels, and security devices. Ownership of testing, documentation, coordination, and corrective work remains unknown and may be divided across multiple primes.

Commissioning will bridge every program. The project will need staged turnover, factory tests, site acceptance, point-to-point checks, fiber and network readiness, power-quality verification, cooling sequences, alarm validation, security and fire interfaces, failure-mode tests, integrated systems testing, operator training, and disciplined digital closeout. The commissioning authority has not been named.

Contractors can prepare without treating the project as an active bid. Useful readiness includes federal-site and mission-critical safety records, insurance and bonding capacity, EMR history, controlled-site labor planning, fiber cleaning and inspection, fusion splicing, OTDR and optical-loss testing, copper certification, pathway coordination, grounding, access-control and VMS commissioning, fire alarm acceptance support, controls point-to-point testing, redlines, labeling, and complete turnover packages.

Prequalification material should show regional labor, South Carolina licensing, industrial or data-center references, QA/QC plans, testing equipment, manufacturer certifications, field supervision, schedule controls, cybersecurity practices for connected systems, commissioning experience, and examples of as-builts and electronic closeout. Federal access, background checks, security training, and site-specific qualifications may become additional gates.

Local WRDW coverage reinforces the current stage: negotiations and federal reviews remain ahead. The strongest monitors now are DOE/NNSA lease notices, Amentum and DC BLOX updates, Savannah River procurement channels, South Carolina Commerce, county records, environmental filings, utility and transmission proceedings, contractor portfolios, plan rooms, and project-specific hiring.

Track the aliases Savannah River Site AI Infrastructure and Energy Generation Project, SRS AI data center, Amentum SRS data center, DC BLOX Savannah River, DOE Savannah River AI campus, and Aiken County AI data center. Keep this project distinct from existing Savannah River nuclear and cleanup contracts, unrelated DC BLOX campuses, and other federal-land AI campus selections.

The business-development angle is early but credible. LVN now has a source-backed record for the federal selection, Amentum's lead role, DC BLOX's digital-infrastructure role, proposed capacity, candidate land, federal obligations, and likely low-voltage lanes. Named firms can correct the record, claim company profiles, share verified procurement or hiring updates, or sponsor continued coverage without LVN claiming an award that has not happened.

Bottom line: Savannah River is a high-confidence predevelopment watch, not a shovel-ready building package. The next decisive evidence will be a final lease, tract selection, additional consortium partners, utility and generation filings, environmental and security approvals, site plans, building permits, design-team appointments, construction primes, fiber routes, specialty trade awards, and a phased commissioning schedule.