Amazon signs deal to finance nuclear energy facility in Indiana — The Verge

Amazon has signed an agreement with X-energy and American Electric Power (AEP) to finance the construction of a new nuclear energy facility in Indiana, United States. It is planned to be built on the site of the closed Breed Generating Station coal-fired power plant in Fairbanks, Sullivan County. The facility is expected to provide up to 960 MW of carbon-free electricity for the regional grid and Amazon data centers, The Verge reports.

Xe-100 reactors

The site is planned to host 12 Xe-100 small modular reactors. This technology is still in the development and licensing stages. The reactors can use air, water, or hybrid cooling.

Amazon says that such a cooling system could make it possible to deploy reactors in regions with limited water resources without affecting local communities’ demand for water. At the same time, the company has not announced a timeline for construction or the start of operations at the energy facility.

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Jobs and joint plans

According to Amazon’s estimate, the project could potentially create around 1,000 jobs during construction and 100 permanent jobs. The terms of the agreement concerning the Fairbanks site have not been disclosed.

This is the second nuclear energy project that Amazon and X-energy are working on jointly. The companies share a goal of cooperating with regional energy suppliers to deploy more than 5 GW of new nuclear capacity in the United States by 2039.

Construction of the Marble Hill nuclear power plant was previously started in Indiana, but the project was left unfinished in 1983 after $2.5 billion had been spent. Dismantling of the facility has been ongoing since 2008.