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The U.S. Department of Energy extolled the virtues of 2 proposed data center sites on the Oak Ridge Reservation in October 2025. DOE has since shifted its focus to potential sites in Ohio and Kentucky, and currently no longer accepts proposals for private data center development in Oak Ridge. As seen in this screenshot, DOE touted the nuclear-energy industries’ infrastructure and expertise as draws for private data center development. DOE via YouTube

DOE shifts data center focus away from Oak Ridge to sites in Kentucky and Ohio

OAK RIDGE — (updated Sep. 5 with more details on site B; extra video) The U.S. Department of Energy is at least temporarily moving its focus away from promoting federal Oak Ridge lands as sites for data centers and is instead looking at developing sites in other states.

On Sep. 30, 2025 the department requested private enterprises to submit artificial intelligence data center proposals for 2 parcels on the Oak Ridge Reservation. It held a virtual industry day on Oct. 15, 2025 attended by multiple companies from different industries.

One site is west of Oak Ridge National Laboratory at the intersection of Bethel Valley Road and Tennessee Highway 95, totaling 95 acres. The other totals 150 acres at East Tennessee Technology Park, including 83 acres that are part of Manhattan Project National Historical Park — formerly the site of the K-25 complex, which enriched uranium for atomic bombs. 

Just 5 weeks before the request, at noon on Aug. 23, the K-25 observation platform, which is part of the William J. Wilcox Jr. K-25 Interpretive Center, had been opened to the public. The platform was built specifically to provide visitors with a panoramic view of the historic 44-acre K-25 footprint and “to help visitors understand the scope and magnitude of the K-25 Building and Site.” Is watching construction of AI data centers already trumping our national history?

Ben Williams, communications director for the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management for DOE, said the department received proposals for the Oak Ridge sites in response to the request for proposals (RFP) before a Dec.1, 2025 deadline, but for now is turning them down. DOE will instead focus on completing and signing leases for data centers on two other former nuclear enrichment sites: its Portsmouth site in Ohio and its Paducah site in Kentucky.