What is the Waterford Data Center?

The Waterford data center is a proposed data center planned to be located in Waterford Ct within the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant that would take up about 5% of the about 500 acre site purchasing energy directly from the site. The two story building would total 1.5 million square feet in space and the developers of the project, New England Edge, and Millstone owner Dominion Energy have signed a host fee agreement with Waterford, promising to pay a fee of $231 million over 30 years in lieu of property taxes. The data center is planned to be made for AI purposes, due to the rapid increase in popularity over the past few years in the development of AI, which requires data centers to work. Since the data center was first proposed, opposition from citizens of both Waterford and their neighboring town of East Lyme has arisen due to the lack of transparency from the developers to citizens. This has caused groups like the CCWEL (Concerned Citizens of Waterford and East Lyme) to form in protest of the data center to form in August of 2023. Currently, the data center is in a state of limbo but could request another application within 36 months, so there’s still a chance it could be built.