TeraWulf (WULF) has begun operations at its Nautilus Cryptomine facility – the first nuclear-powered bitcoin mining facility in the U.S – with nearly 8,000 mining rigs online representing computing power, or hash rate, of about 1.0 exahash per seond (EH/s).

The company expects to have about another 8,000 rigs energized in coming weeks, bringing capacity at the Pennsylvania-based Nautilus facility to 1.9 EH/s by May, according to a Monday morning press release.

Nautilus will significantly lower TeraWulf's energy costs, with the company having secured a power agreement for $0.02 per kilowatt hour (kWh) of power for five years, which will bring its average energy cost down to $0.035/kWh across its two facilities. That's much lower than the U.S. industrial average of $0.086/kWh that the Energy Information Administration reported in December 2022, as well as the variable rate TeraWulf pays at its New York site, which averages $0.045/kWh.