Riot 2 data center, Paducah, Kentucky

Riot Platforms' Bitcoin mining site on Coleman Road, in McCracken County's Industrial Park West just outside Paducah, Kentucky, could one day run on a small modular nuclear reactor. In May 2026 Riot and Terrestrial Energy announced a partnership to pair Riot's future data centers with Terrestrial Energy's advanced reactors and named the Paducah operation among the sites they may consider, though WKMS reported this is "Riot's sole existing Kentucky facility" and no timeline has been set.

Riot acquired its two Paducah sites in 2024 when it bought Block Mining Inc., the Kentucky company that built them, for $92.5 million: $18.5 million in cash and $74 million in Riot stock, with up to $32.5 million more if Block Mining added power capacity. The two sites had 60 megawatts of combined operating capacity at the time, and Riot said it could expand them to 110 megawatts, plus a third Kentucky site, for a total above 300 megawatts.

Riot's operations run on grid power under two power purchase agreements CEO Jason Les signed this year with Jackson Purchase Energy Corporation, extending through 2043. Whether a reactor is ever built depends on Riot and Terrestrial Energy, which have set no date for announcing or building one.

McCracken County has also become a draw for nuclear fuel investment, with General Matter and Global Laser Enrichment each announcing billion-dollar uranium enrichment plants near the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, where the Department of Energy announced a separate 1.8-gigawatt data center campus in July 2026. Residents organized as Protect McCracken County are asking for an independent environmental study of all the projects because the site carries Superfund contamination.