Amazon to fund 12 small nuclear reactors at former coal plant site in Indiana
Amazon will fund development of a 960-megawatt nuclear plant in the US state of Indiana and be the first buyer of its power. Utility American Electric Power would operate it, with reactors supplied by X-energy.
Technology and retail company Amazon will finance development of a proposed 960-megawatt nuclear power plant in Indiana and become the first customer to buy its electricity, the companies said on Monday. The plant would be run by utility American Electric Power (AEP), while X-energy, a designer of small modular nuclear reactors that listed on the stock market in April, would supply the reactors.
What the project involves
The station would consist of 12 Xe-100 small modular reactors, built on the site of a demolished coal plant just south of Terre Haute. Unlike many recently announced power projects, the reactors would connect to the public electricity grid, although Amazon says the output would also serve its data centers.
It is the second commercial agreement between Amazon and X-energy, and it is three times larger than the first, announced two years ago. Amazon has also invested in X-energy, leading a $700 million Series C-1 funding round in October 2024. The companies have said they ultimately plan to build 5 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity in the US by 2039.
Risks and conditions
The timeline still depends on X-energy delivering its first power plant at a Dow Chemical facility called Seadrift, southeast of Houston, Texas. That site would host four Xe-100 reactors supplying the chemical plant with heat and electricity. The state of Texas has filed a lawsuit accusing the facility of "habitual non-compliance" with water and solid-waste rules and permits. X-energy has not yet broken ground there, but says its construction permit is in the final phases of review by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Startups and large cloud computing companies are betting that small modular reactors will help lift the nuclear industry out of a slump. The most recent nuclear plants built in the US suffered major budget overruns and delays. Experts say mass manufacturing often takes about a decade to start delivering benefits.
X-energy debuted on Nasdaq in April, with its IPO priced at $23 per share. The price rose 27% on the first day of trading, but shares have since fallen by nearly two-thirds. News of the Amazon deal lifted the stock about 10% in pre-market trading, though it was down by less than 2% at the time of the original report.
