Blackburn, Hagerty Court Nuclear Power for New Data Centers

U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty does not measure Tennessee’s potential data center investment in millions or billions of dollars.

“ The numbers are even denominated in trillions if you look out to 2030 — the next four years,” said Hagerty, speaking to a roomful of tech and finance professionals at this year’s ImagineIF conference on Tuesday. “I've heard numbers like $7.5 [trillion] to $8 trillion of capital commitments that are gonna be necessary to build out at the pace that innovation is demanding. We're sitting here in Tennessee, where one of the most incredible build-outs in America — and frankly in the world — is taking place.” 

Both Hagerty and his fellow senator, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, sketched out a short path for Tennessee to become the nation’s center of computing power fueled by expanded nuclear energy under the Tennessee Valley Authority. America’s global dominance lies in the balance for Hagerty; Blackburn, who is the frontrunner in the Tennessee governor's race, eyes another wave of corporate investment.

“ There is a phrase I use all the time, and I think it applies here in our state," said Blackburn Tuesday. "And it's, 'less taxation, plus less regulation, plus less litigation, equals more innovation and job creation.' You can take that to the bank.”

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Later on, when asked to speculate about Tennessee's future, Blackburn shared her nuclear vision.

“ In eight years, I think that the world — not just the country, but the world — will be looking at Oak Ridge, Tenn., as the leader in America's nuclear renaissance,” she said.

The federal government’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission permitted the nation’s first commercial small modular reactor project at TVA’s Clinch River site last month, fueled in part by a $400 million investment from a GE-Hitachi partnership. U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann followed Blackburn’s presentation with his own ambitious declaration. 

“ We’re not going to build one — we’re going to build a hundred,” vowed Fleischmann. 

Global competition with China also drives the D.C. consensus. 

“When we look to our traditional adversaries or our current adversaries, they have a voracious appetite for power, and they are building capacity, sometimes in nuclear,” explained Fleischmann. “China's actually going to burn more coal this year than at any time in the world's history. As they move in that direction, we need to make sure that we compete.”

Hagerty, Blackburn and Fleischmann defended coal and gas as necessary short-term fuel sources despite their carbon emissions and expense. All three cheer the Clinch River project as forerunning modern nuclear power that will draw oodles of cash from Silicon Valley tech giants demanding more computing power. Blackburn and Hagerty see Tennessee’s future as a leading provider of both for American tech giants.

Comparisons to the Manhattan Project follow naturally. The World War II moonshot, which helped successfully produce the world’s first atomic weapon, built a nuclear legacy around Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex. Other factors, like abundant land and water, make East Tennessee ripe for resource-intensive projects that are already crowding Appalachia. 

In two short presentations at ImagineIF, a technofuturist conference at Belmont University’s Fisher Center in Nashville, Blackburn and Hagerty identified two major obstacles: local opposition and government permitting. Blackburn spoke with Stuart McWhorter, who leads the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development. Hagerty blames local opposition on “disinformation” and “misunderstanding.” Success will require flipping the narrative on big tech’s server farms. Polls show that Americans overwhelmingly oppose building data centers near their homes. Regulating data center build-out, and AI development, has become a central issue in this year’s midterms.

 ”We've had small communities that could have more than doubled the tax revenues for their communities, think about a new park, a new school, et cetera,” Hagerty said. “But very well-orchestrated, very well-organized social media campaigns come in from out of state, and the next thing you know, people are voting against it because they're being warned that they're gonna use an enormous amount of water, that they're gonna be damaging to the environment, that there's gonna be this massive increase in electric cost.” 

Hagerty pointed to the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, currently stuck in the Senate, as a sufficient safeguard to ensure utility costs remain stable for Americans. Opponents have argued the legislation doesn’t go far enough to protect everyday families’ costs amid spiking electricity demand. Hagerty said that data center politics have turned radioactive, hindering the desired “permitting perform” that would pave the way for more sites. 

“ We were very close last week in the Senate, and we made some major concessions to the Democrats to get this done,” explained Hagerty. “The problem is, we're just too close to Nov. 3. 'Yes' was not even an acceptable answer.”

Hagerty has struggled to define himself within the chamber’s 100-person roster since being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2020. A former private equity financier and Trump’s ambassador to Japan from 2017 to 2019, Hagerty has been a reliable Trump ally and rarely makes public appearances. Quickly scaling Tennessee’s nuclear capacity has become a clear focus for him and will be a priority in his next term, should he win reelection. In November's general election, Hagerty faces Memphis Democrat Marquita Bradshaw. Bradshaw, a Memphis activist, previously faced Hagerty in 2020 and was defeated by roughly 27 percentage points.