Daniel Lee and Marek Mazurek, Indianapolis Business Journal and Alex Brown, Inside INdiana Business
Energy startup First American Nuclear—looking to build its first small modular reactor, or SMR—and the Braun administration on Tuesday announced sweeping plans to move the company’s headquarters, manufacturing operations and nuclear power generation to Indiana, resulting in an anticipated $4 billion investment and the creation of about 5,000 jobs.
First American Nuclear, which now has only around 40 employees, is in in the process of moving its headquarters from the small city of Richland, Washington, to Carmel, CEO Mike Reinboth told IBJ. He said the company also has an office near Purdue University in West Lafayette to work with nuclear experts there.
The company, which goes by Fanco, says its Closed-Fuel Cycle Nuclear Energy Park will be the first of its kind in the country, designed to reprocess and reuse spent nuclear fuel on-site. Fanco said this process will lead to the elimination of 97% of long-lasting nuclear waste.
The main technology of the “closed-fuel cycle,” the EAGL-1SRM, is cooled using liquid metal alloy called bismuth, the company said. Fanco also noted that successful nuclear systems outside the United States use lead-bismuth for cooling.
Fanco said its project will eventually generate 240 megawatts of electricity, and with a six-reactor cluster would produce enough electricity to power about 1.5 million homes.
However, Reinboth said the plant would be built to first produce power using natural gas and then transitioned to nuclear power production, likely in the early 2030s.
“One of the unique things in our plant design, since it was sort of built around using off-the-shelf parts from a natural gas power plant is, we want to build a power plant today, and it will be a nuclear power plant, but have an interim gas solution until we get through all the licensing on both the reactor piece and for that site,” Reinboth said.
Reinboth said the company has not yet finalized the site of the energy park but is looking at five locations across the state in what he said were less-populated areas. He added that members of the company’s senior management team are already buying homes in the area and plan to have an office set up by early 2026.
“Indiana is our goal to be that very first big project because the state’s been so supportive and pro-nuclear,” Reinboth said. “That was one of the big things that brought us here in the first place.”
Fanco’s emerging presence
SMRs are nuclear reactors that have a power capacity of up to 300 megawatts per unit, about one-third of the generating capacity of traditional reactors, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun said in a news release that the move adds high-paying jobs to Indiana, “cementing our state as a leader in clean, reliable nuclear power.” The state doesn’t currently have any nuclear generators.
Reinboth said his company has been in contact with local utilities Hoosier Energy, AES Indiana and Duke Energy Indiana. A representative for AES Indiana confirmed the company has been in early contact with Fanco but declined to comment further Tuesday.
Reinboth said Fanco is new as a branded entity but is staffed by scientists who have been working together since the late 1990s. The company has not yet constructed a small modular reactor.
Fanco has a small online footprint, with about 445 LinkedIn followers. The company on its website claims its leadership team has “helped shape the U.S. nuclear industry, from building today’s operating reactors to advancing next-gen designs and fuel cycles.”
Fanco founder and President Bill Stokes wrote in a company blog posted Tuesday: “I formed this company to build a team and take our design philosophy to a future centered on targeted innovation; we used advanced technology where it genuinely mattered for customer value but stuck with traditional proven methods where innovation did not provide added value.”
‘A great move for Indiana’?
Indiana Secretary of Energy Suzanne Jaworowski said Fanco has the ability to deliver affordable and sustainable power to Hoosiers.
“This is a great move for Indiana, and it’s a great move for the United States of America to be deploying a closed-loop nuclear energy park for the country and for the state of Indiana,” Jaworowski told Inside INdiana Business Television host Gerry Dick. “Being able to utilize what’s not been used in the spent-fuel cycle is a big accomplishment.”
Jaworowski described the positions that will be created through Fanco’s investment as “generational jobs,” due to the projected decadeslong life spans for natural gas and nuclear power plants.
But Kerwin Olson, executive director of the ratepayer advocacy group Citizens Action Coalition, dismissed Tuesday’s announcement as “hyperbole and rosy promises” from the nuclear industry.
“They (SMRs) are not even close to being cost-competitive with other fuels and technologies, not to mention that they are years away from being commercially available, if they ever are,” Olson said in an email to IBJ. “They are not a solution to meeting the growing electric demand.
“Affordable, clean, and truly safe technologies, like wind and solar, are available today. There’s no need to squander billions in ratepayer and taxpayer money down the nuclear rabbit hole.”
How state law incentivizes SMR projects
Nuclear energy has been the focus of a slew of bills filed in recent legislative sessions to pave the way for these kinds of projects to grow.
As chair of the Senate Committee on Utilities, Sen. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, authored three bills in the 2025 session related to nuclear energy. Those bills—along with House Bill 1007 authored by Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso—offer significant financial incentives for public utilities and private companies to branch out to nuclear projects.
At the core of the recent legislation is a 20% tax credit for energy companies on costs related to developing SMRs. Another provision allows public utilities to recoup 80% of their costs related to developing SMRs within three years, while the other 20% can be recovered through general rate increase requests. That includes recovery costs for pre-planning stages of projects, even if they’re not built, and for projects that go over their original budgets.
Further measures passed this year include a pilot program for utility companies to create business partnerships on SMR projects and a bill that allows SMRs to override county-level zoning regulations for projects built near current energy plants or mines.
“It’s exactly what we had hoped would happen, but even sooner,” Koch said of Fanco’s announcement. “The company has told me as much. I’ve met with them, and they attributed their decision directly to the policy that had been set by the General Assembly.”
Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, who’s the ranking minority member on the House Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications Committee, was more cautious, emphasizing that SMR technology is largely unproven. He also said he anticipates the company will face local opposition over its plans to house spent nuclear fuel onsite.
“I hope they’re successful. I hope the 5,000 jobs materialize. But … I’ve seen big job announcements like this in the past, and they haven’t panned out,” Pierce said. “The ultimate question is: Will they be able to design a small modular reactor that gets all the necessary approvals and can actually be affordable?”
Fanco said its planned Indiana manufacturing facilities and the energy park are on separate timelines, but the current plan is for both to start construction sometime in 2028. The company said hiring starts right away and will continue over the next decade.