DOE's Nov. 6 Hanford RFO: About 3,125 Acres for Projects That Bring Own Power

The US Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) on Nov. 6, 2026, issued Hanford request for offer DE-RFO-0000026, seeking proposals for about 3,125 acres of its Hanford site in Washington that the Hanford Field Office has preliminarily identified for computing, manufacturing and energy projects that supply their own new power. A request for offer is a solicitation, not a lease or an award: DOE has selected no one, and the RFO says it may select all, some or none of the offers.

The RFO document on SAM.gov splits the land into two tracts. Tract 1 covers 1,876 acres and is available now; Tract 2 covers 1,249 acres and may become available later. DOE's Nov. 6 press release puts the total at up to 3,700 acres. DOE has not said what accounts for the gap; the RFO says only that the Hanford Field Office is studying whether adjacent land could be added, and that details are not available. ANS Nuclear Newswire, which reported the RFO on Nov. 10, gives the same tract sizes and describes the offer as potentially more than 3,000 acres.

Build, bring or buy the power

The power terms are the core of the offer. Citing the Ratepayer Protection Pledge of March 4, 2026, the RFO document says developers are expected to build, bring or buy the new generation and electricity their projects need, and to pay the full cost of those resources and of any new power delivery upgrades. It also asks that the energy supply be fully established before any other project infrastructure comes online. ANS, which quotes the build, bring or buy wording, reports that the generating plant does not have to sit on the leased land. DOE's own release says applicants must secure utility interconnection agreements.

Grid access is the bidder's problem. Applicants must secure their own interconnection, and the RFO document names the Bonneville Power Administration as the transmission planner for the area. The Hanford Field Office says it cannot guarantee that any interconnection point or right-of-way path is feasible. Bidders that already hold contracted offtake or an advanced interconnection queue position get added consideration in the evaluation.

What bidders may build

The RFO document lists four configurations: an integrated advanced manufacturing, critical minerals and computing project; a computing project alone; a manufacturing or critical minerals project; and an energy infrastructure project. Nuclear developers may seek licensing through DOE authorization or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and must say which and why. Selected offerors would be expected to enter long-term realty agreements, such as a lease or easement, which DOE's release also names. According to the RFO, they would pay DOE cash consideration, fund the projects entirely themselves and post a decommissioning bond before construction.

Next to the Cascade site

According to ANS, both tracts lie near the Columbia River just south of the part of Hanford where Energy Northwest, X-energy and Amazon plan the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility, up to 12 of X-energy's Xe-100 gas-cooled reactor modules. DOE's release does not mention Cascade or its partners, and neither DOE nor ANS lists any bidder. Amazon funds Cascade's feasibility phase and has the right to buy power from its first four modules, with no power price set, as Voltgrid reported; X-energy selected Fluor on Nov. 5 for the plant's nuclear island engineering and design, with no contract value given, as covered on Nov. 8.

For data-center developers, the terms trade land for responsibility. DOE's release describes the acreage as long designated industrial in the site's land-use plan, but under the RFO the computing load has to arrive with its own new supply and pay for its own grid upgrades, and the RFO asks for that supply to be in place before other project infrastructure comes online.

DOE's schedule asks for questions by Nov. 20, 2026, according to the RFO, and sets a virtual industry day on Dec. 9, 2026, and an offer deadline of Jan. 29, 2027, according to DOE's release. The RFO names no bidders and sets no megawatt figure for the projects. Still open: what accounts for the gap between about 3,125 and up to 3,700 acres, and whether any Cascade partner will bid.