Data Center Project Stratos Planned for Box Elder County, Utah 2026 – “Comparable to detonating 23 atomic bombs per day”

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A massive new hyperscale data center project called Stratos is planned for Box Elder County, Utah. If built, it would demand up to 9 gigawatts of electricity, more than twice the total power consumption of the entire state.

But the real shock comes from the waste heat. According to Utah State University physics professor Robert Davies, the facility would generate an additional 7 to 8 gigawatts of heat, creating a total thermal output of roughly 16 gigawatts concentrated in one location.

That energy release, Davies calculated, is comparable to detonating 23 atomic bombs per day in Hansel Valley, a high desert basin near the shrinking Great Salt Lake that naturally traps heat like a bowl. The project’s energy footprint would also be roughly equal to that of 40,000 Walmart Supercenters.

Local temperatures could rise by about 5°F (2.8°C) during the day and a staggering 28°F (15.6°C) at night. Ecologists warn that such dramatic warming would stress an already fragile ecosystem, worsen toxic dust from the drying lakebed, and disrupt plants, wildlife, and water resources.

As the backbone of artificial intelligence, data centers are essential for every AI query, image, and training run. The Stratos project now raises a critical question: Can the massive infrastructure behind AI expand without permanently transforming, and overheating, the communities and landscapes where it’s built?

[“‘So much worse than I even thought’: Utah’s ‘hyperscale’ data center could create massive heat island near Great Salt Lake.” The Salt Lake Tribune] -via Massimo

🚨 NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT THIS

The Stratos 9 GW AI data center in Box Elder County will be the largest concentrated accumulation of radioactive industrial waste in Utah history. Nobody is reporting it.

TENORM stands for Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive… https://t.co/dJi1ogIHwh pic.twitter.com/seIQdtfOYe

— Danks (@danksterintel) May 18, 2026

Everyone seems to be forgetting that Utah was the site of the infamous NSA Utah Data Center (at one time referred to only as "DARKSTAR.") I first reported on it about a decade ago. These data centers are NOT about AI. They're about the CONTROL GRID. https://t.co/LpDGhYmJGj pic.twitter.com/8DomKct0P7

— Brandon Weichert (@WeTheBrandon) May 15, 2026

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 Big time shenanigans going on in UTAH‼️
Utah speaker of the house Mike Schultz owns hundreds of acres of land right near the Stratos data Center site‼️
THIS IS JOURNALISM‼️ pic.twitter.com/I3VkNek0VE

— Meidas_Charise Lee (@charise_lee) May 15, 2026

🔥Thomas Massie "single-handedly" killed a bill "granting immunity to data center developers for any harm they cause your community"

"Both sides of the aisle were paid to pass this bill"

"That was going to happen 2 weeks ago, and Thomas Massie killed that bill"

"There is… pic.twitter.com/yMmqm8y19z

— Sense Receptor (@SenseReceptor) May 15, 2026

Data centers are the leading cause of a 76% increase in the cost of electricity for America's largest power grid over just the first 3 months of this year, according to Bloomberg.

The 13-state grid managed by PJM serves 67 million people, and costs have spiked this year.

This…

— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) May 15, 2026

Billionaire Kevin O’Leary says the US has to build these massive data centers to compete with China but it is a big lie.

The US already has 5,381 data centers which is 12 times more than China’s 449.

In fact, the US has more data centers than nearly every other nation combined. pic.twitter.com/exejR7jWP3

— Power to the People ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) May 15, 2026

Shark Tank Billionaire Kevin O'leary says 2 people fighting data centers in Utah are Chinese agents. Turns out its just 2 local girls in Utah, they make a hilarious video calling him the fuck out pic.twitter.com/9fA14j4vps

— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) May 14, 2026

I thought ours were bad in Wisconsin. Paying for those data centers.
The people have to pay for it, not the companies installing it. pic.twitter.com/bf8AqV2Kzp

— J.J. Fletcher (@JJFletchermusic) May 13, 2026

A farmer in Appalachia Kentucky reports this is the second pass of a helicopter over their privately owned homested farmland. They deployed long-line/sling load operations of unknown origin.

The tail number comes back to the Department of Interior, and the fleet of contracted… pic.twitter.com/GaKmZXKet3

— The Constitutionalist 🇺🇸 (@WeWillBeFree24) May 13, 2026

🚨 BLACKROCK CEO CALLS CITIZENS “DOMESTIC TERRORISTS” FOR BEING CONCERNED THAT THEY OWN EVERY DATACENTER IN AMERICA 🚨

Larry Fink has revealed the quiet contempt of the financial elite in stark terms.

Speaking at the Milken Institute, the BlackRock chairman openly declared that… pic.twitter.com/zmrh5OpQ8G

— Jack Danger (@JackDangerLIVE) May 13, 2026

69 US jurisdictions have now blocked new data centers.

Citing the need to protect local power grids and water supplies, a growing number of cities, counties, and towns are pushing back hard against the explosive growth of AI data centers.

At least 69 jurisdictions across the… pic.twitter.com/aEzC9wGBRQ

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) May 13, 2026

So I’ve lived in Hillsboro, Oregon for 10 years. Drove around today and tonight and shot this myself. This is what the “Data Center Plains” looks like.👇

My town sits at the end of 6 transpacific sea cables connecting the US to Asia. That’s why 30+ data centers landed here.… pic.twitter.com/YRSh8X3LZY

— The Darkpulse Files  𝕏 (@Scout_503) May 13, 2026

Stop calling them "data centers."

Call them what they actually are:

MASS SURVEILLANCE CENTERS. pic.twitter.com/3MUVRQhjfI

— redpillbot (@redpillb0t) May 13, 2026