ONE Nuclear Energy has signed a binding letter of intent securing site control for Project Cayman, a proposed 2.88-gigawatt natural gas power plant combined with a 700-megawatt battery storage system and a co-located data center campus near the RiverPlex MegaPark in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. No capital cost, construction schedule, or engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor has been announced, and the agreement covers site control only.
What Was Announced, and What Wasn’t
The August 31, 2026 announcement from ONE Nuclear Energy LLC covers a binding letter of intent with an unnamed Louisiana landowner group, giving the company control of the Project Cayman site. The project combines a 2.88 GW natural gas plant with a 700 MW, 2.88 GWh battery energy storage system, along with a high capacity data center campus on the same property. Despite ONE Nuclear’s name and its stated strategy of pairing natural gas with advanced nuclear technology, no reactor has been announced for the Louisiana project. As industry outlet Converge Digest pointed out, Project Cayman as currently disclosed is a natural gas and battery project rather than a nuclear one, a distinction that the company’s broader marketing can sometimes blur. CEO Richard Taylor said the project is intended to provide the reliable power needed to support new investment, positioning it as a complement to the industrial expansion already taking place nearby.
A Site Chosen for Its Neighbors
Project Cayman’s location near the RiverPlex MegaPark is deliberate. The more than 17,000-acre site on the west bank of the Mississippi River near Donaldsonville has emerged as one of the country’s most active industrial development areas over the past two years. Hyundai Steel has committed $5.8 billion to develop its first North American steel plant on 1,700 acres within the megapark, a facility expected to produce 2.7 million metric tons of steel annually and generate around 1,300 direct jobs, with construction scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2026. Several miles away, CF Industries, JERA and Mitsui are developing the Blue Point Complex, a low-carbon ammonia project that CRO has followed since its $4 billion announcement in 2025; the first phase, Blue Point One, began construction shortly before Project Cayman’s announcement at a reported cost of $3.7 billion. Linde has separately committed $400 million to an air separation unit serving the ammonia facility. Ascension Economic Development Corporation President and CEO Kate MacArthur said the agency will continue marketing the remaining land within RiverPlex MegaPark as additional projects look to establish operations there. State and federal authorities have also provided direct funding for infrastructure at the megasite: a $7.3 million Energy Transition Parkway connector broke ground in October 2025, while a separate $2.3 million federal grant awarded in 2024 was expected to help unlock approximately $9.5 billion in private investment throughout the site.
The Company Behind the Letter of Intent
ONE Nuclear Energy is also in the middle of a corporate transaction. On August 24, 2026, shareholders of Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. VII, a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company, approved a business combination with ONE Nuclear that is expected to close in the second half of 2026 and see the combined company trade under the ticker ONEN. That corporate timetable is running alongside Project Cayman’s own development schedule: ONE Nuclear says community outreach is already in progress, with public information meetings involving local parishes and government agencies planned from September through December 2026, the same period during which the public listing is expected to be completed.
What Comes Next in the Delivery Chain
Project Cayman remains at an early stage of development, well ahead of construction. Unlike CRO’s earlier coverage of Burns & McDonnell’s work on Basin Electric’s Pioneer Power Station Phase IV, a similarly focused 600 MW natural gas addition in North Dakota’s Bakken region that had a named EPC contractor, specified turbine and engine models, and an active construction programme when CRO first reported on it, Project Cayman has none of those details yet. No EPC company, turbine or engine supplier, or general contractor has been identified, and ONE Nuclear’s announcement refers only to site control rather than a final investment decision or groundbreaking date. That distance between an initial project announcement and actual construction is common for large gas-fired developments at this point, but it means the details most relevant to contractors and suppliers — who will construct it, when work will begin, and what equipment will be used — remain unanswered.
Part of a Broader Gas-and-Data-Center Wave
Project Cayman reflects a growing trend across the U.S. in which developers are pairing new gas generation and battery storage directly with data center campuses instead of waiting through utility interconnection queues. CRO has tracked a comparable model at Fermi America’s Project Matador, an 11 GW campus planned in Amarillo, Texas, combining near-term generation with four proposed Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactors and 18 million square feet of data center space. Both developments rely on a similar premise: locating generation and storage alongside the load it serves can avoid years of delays associated with grid interconnections. Project Cayman is approximately one-quarter the size of Matador and, unlike Matador, has not disclosed any nuclear component so far, highlighting the differences among projects being marketed under the same data-center-power model.
Open Questions
Several aspects remain unclear. ONE Nuclear has not revealed Project Cayman’s capital cost or identified the data center operator or operators expected to use the campus. The Louisiana landowner group providing site control has also not been publicly identified. And although the company characterizes the letter of intent as binding, it comes before the environmental reviews, permitting processes, and interconnection studies that typically establish whether a project of this scale can move into construction according to its developer’s initial schedule.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will Project Cayman include a nuclear reactor?
No reactor has been announced. Based on the current disclosure, Project Cayman consists of a natural gas plant and battery storage, despite ONE Nuclear’s broader nuclear ambitions elsewhere.
Who will build Project Cayman?
No EPC contractor, turbine supplier, or general contractor has been identified. The August 2026 announcement covers site control only.
When will construction start on Project Cayman?
No construction schedule has been announced. Community outreach and public information meetings are planned from September through December 2026.
Project Fact Sheet
- Project Name: Project Cayman
- Location: Near the RiverPlex MegaPark, Ascension Parish, Louisiana (west bank of the Mississippi River, near Donaldsonville)
- Project Value: Not publicly disclosed
- Client/Developer: ONE Nuclear Energy LLC
- Key Components: 2.88 GW natural gas power plant; 700 MW, 2.88 GWh Battery Energy Storage System; co-located high capacity data center campus
- Procurement Model: Not yet awarded (no EPC contractor, technology vendor, or turbine supplier named)
- Funding Source: Not publicly disclosed; ONE Nuclear is completing a business combination with Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. VII (Nasdaq: HVII), expected to close in the second half of 2026
- Site Control: Secured through a binding letter of intent with an undisclosed Louisiana landowner group, announced August 31, 2026
- Construction Start: Not publicly disclosed; community and stakeholder outreach planned from September through December 2026
- Expected Completion: Not publicly disclosed
Project Team
- Developer: ONE Nuclear Energy LLC
- Site/Land Control: Not yet disclosed (Louisiana landowner group)
- EPC Contractor: Not yet awarded
- Technology/Turbine Supplier: Not yet awarded
Leave a Reply