In a move that could rewrite Palm Beach Gardens' business card from golf haven to nuclear tech hub, advanced nuclear startup Ampera has opened its global headquarters and manufacturing facility off Northlake Boulevard. On Wednesday, the company pulled back the curtain on a container-sized, thorium-fueled microreactor it bills as "ultra-safe," pitching the units as future power sources for AI data centers, military infrastructure and entire neighborhoods. Ampera says it has already hired about 100 people and hopes to scale to full production and thousands of jobs if its prototypes and federal licensing progress as planned.
As reported by WPTV, founder and CEO Brian Matthews gave the station an exclusive first look, telling reporters the systems "can power thousands of homes, 10,000 to 20,000 homes." WPTV notes Ampera has started with roughly 100 employees but is eyeing a ramp-up to around 2,500 workers and production of about 150 systems a year if everything goes to plan. "We hopefully will be the first company to bring this to market," Matthews said.
What Ampera says it's building
According to a company press release via PR Newswire, Ampera is developing a subcritical, thorium-fueled microreactor that uses TRISO-style fuel and advanced additive manufacturing to create sealed, long-life cores the company says do not require refueling and generate relatively little long-lived waste. Trade reporting in Interesting Engineering notes the design would pair TRISO fuel with water-free power cycles such as supercritical CO2 and targets roughly 15 to 30 MWe per unit, which Ampera contends is enough to run large facilities or small towns. The company describes the reactors as factory-built, containerized energy modules intended to be shipped to customer sites rather than constructed on location.
Local jobs and where it will operate
The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County says Ampera will operate out of nearly 100,000 square feet at the Gardens Innovation Center at PGA National Commerce Park and that it helped the company navigate permitting through the City of Palm Beach Gardens. The BDB lists 358 Hiatt Drive as the company headquarters. Commercial real estate coverage from Bisnow records Ampera's occupancy of 354 and 358 Hiatt Drive and notes that outside investors have already taken a stake in the startup, signaling that Wall Street money is just as interested in this office park as local officials are.
Regulatory path and timeline
Ampera told investors it has submitted a formal letter to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission requesting to begin the pre-application process under the agency's evolving framework, according to the company press release. Interesting Engineering and PR Newswire report the firm is seeking meetings with NRC staff as the agency advances a risk-informed, technology-inclusive pathway known as 10 CFR Part 53. The NRC's own materials describe Part 53 as its modernization effort for licensing advanced reactors and show that rulemaking and guidance are actively moving forward. Ampera and local outlets alike caution that any commercial deployment will hinge on a thorough licensing review. The NRC and the company say production targets depend on that process, with Matthews telling WPTV the firm aims to have production up and running by the end of the decade.
What to watch next
All eyes now turn to the less glamorous but hugely important next steps: permitting filings in Palm Beach Gardens, Ampera's scheduled meetings with NRC staff and early prototype testing. Bisnow has highlighted outside investment and workforce expansion plans, while industry outlets report maritime and defense partners as early target markets, including recent coverage of strategic maritime collaborations that could shape Ampera's first customer base. For Palm Beach Gardens, the ultimate economic payoff will depend on how quickly regulators move and how smoothly Ampera can jump from prototype stage to volume manufacturing over the next several years.
