A New Generation of American Nuclear Power
A national project centered in Lewis County, Kentucky
Prosperity One is a proposed nuclear energy campus of up to six AP1000 reactors on the Ohio River in Lewis County, Kentucky. At full buildout it could have about 6.6 gigawatts of generating capacity. Planning begins with two units, that will move through licensing, financing and approvals. To begin, the site will pass detailed studies, federal licensing, grid-connection review and financing before construction.
Lewis County has land, workers, families, businesses, schools and generations of experience building things. What Prosperity One offers is large-scale industrial investment close to home.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau population estimate, July 1, 2025; 2020 Census land area; American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 five-year estimates (mean travel time to work); county formed December 2, 1806 from Mason County.If all six units are built, Prosperity One would have more generating capacity than any nuclear power station operating in the United States today.
Vogtle and Palo Verde: U.S. Energy Information Administration, net summer capacity. Prosperity One: about 1,100 megawatts per AP1000 unit, from Nuclear Regulatory Commission AP1000 documents; a proposal, not an operating plant.Dependable power takes years to build.
The regional grid operator, PJM Interconnection, forecasts summer peak demand growing by about 66,000 megawatts over the next decade. Its most recent capacity auction secured less capacity than its reliability target. Dependable, around-the-clock power takes years to build.
Sources: PJM 2026 Load Forecast Report (January 14, 2026); PJM 2028/2029 Base Residual Auction results (July 14, 2026).Over the summer, Lewis County began Kentucky’s Nuclear-Ready Community process, a state program of public education and local readiness. At that time, no project had been proposed to the county. That process did not and does not approve any project. Prosperity One is being proposed for the first time, and all of it remains open to public study and question.
The Location, Community and People
The Ohio River carried salt, timber and the people who did the work. Downriver at Shippingport, Pennsylvania, America’s first full-scale nuclear power station sent electricity to customers in December 1957.
Prosperity One is a proposal to find out, in the open, whether this same river can carry dependable American power and the skilled careers that keep families in Lewis County.
Lewis County and the riverWork close to home
For many Lewis County families, work is somewhere else. A 38.6-minute average commute is not just a statistic.
As Prosperity One progresses, we will share detailed employment plans and projections. For now, we are basing estimates on the last large-scale nuclear energy buildouts in the United States:
Construction
more than 9,000 craft professionals at peak at Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 (Bechtel)
Permanent jobs
about 800 supported at Vogtle (U.S. Department of Energy)
Veterans
more than 30% of hires (Bechtel)
What nuclear careers pay
A larger local tax base
Kentucky’s Department of Revenue values power plants each year and distributes that value to the county, school district and other local taxing districts. Some equipment is taxed only by the state, and new school property-tax revenue is partly offset in the state’s school-funding formula. Because the result depends on design, classification and agreements not yet made, no estimate is being published today. The method, assumptions, and a range will be published for the school district and Fiscal Court to review.
Community Questions
These are the questions people here have asked, and the ones we would ask in your place. Where we don’t know yet, we say so. Where someone else decides, we say who.
Is it safe?
The AP1000 uses passive safety systems that rely on gravity, natural circulation and condensation rather than pumps and generators. Two units have operated at Plant Vogtle in Georgia since 2023 and 2024. But the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must find this design safe at this site, and those site analyses are not yet done.
What happens in an emergency?
Federal rules set emergency planning zones of about 10 miles for the plume pathway and about 50 miles for the ingestion pathway. Exact boundaries and evacuation time estimates are not yet known. The NRC, FEMA, and Kentucky and county emergency managers decide them.
Will my electric bill go up?
Your bill comes from your own utility. The Public Service Commission and your local utility decide rates.
Who buys the power?
No power buyer has been announced. Buyers for a project like this can include utilities, cooperatives and large industrial and technology customers. Buyers will be named when agreements are signed and public.
A repeatable model, built on proven technology.
Prosperity One is not a new reactor design. It is a proposal to put proven nuclear technology to work through a repeatable deployment model from The Nuclear Company.
Design once, build many.
Proven, licensed designs are replicated across sites, so each project starts further ahead than the last.
One coordinated plan.
Construction, logistics and financing make up 88% of a project’s scope beyond the reactor. That is where nuclear has historically gone over budget and behind schedule, and where the operating model and its digital platform, NOS, are focused.
A clear process.
Every stage is published without dates until they rest on completed work: site studies, NRC engagement, licensing, PJM grid studies, permits, financing and a final investment decision.
No federal loan, license or grid-connection agreement has been awarded or approved.
“I have nine grandchildren, and all of them live in Lewis County. I want them to have the opportunity to stay.”
Sam Howard, local landowner and partnerOffice hours and commitmentsWas this answered?
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