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. The proposed plant, which would replace the now-defunct coal-fired Breed Generating Station in Fairbanks, Sullivan County, aims to provide up to 960 megawatts of carbon-free power for Amazon’s regional power grid and data centers.
No construction or operating schedule has been announced for the facility, which Amazon said “could” create 1,000 construction jobs and 100 permanent positions. The Indiana facility aims to build 12 Xe-100 SMRs, an advanced (but unproven) reactor that is still under development and licensing. These reactors can be cooled using air, water, or a hybrid solution of the two, which Amazon says should allow them to be deployed in water-limited regions without impacting local communities’ water demand.
Indiana is also home to a notoriously expensive and unfinished energy project called the Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant. It was abandoned half-finished in 1983 after $2.5 billion had already been invested in it, and has been under continuous demolition since 2008. The terms of Amazon’s deal in Fairbanks have not been disclosed, so we cannot compare the cost between the facilities.
This is the second nuclear power project that Amazon and This project also aims to build 12 advanced reactors and create local jobs, but construction is not expected to begin until the end of this decade.
Amazon is one of several tech companies, including Meta, Microsoft and Google, exploring their own nuclear energy projects to power AI data centers. Investing in energy grid infrastructure was also one of the commitments Amazon outlined in a lengthy blog post earlier this month, aimed at countering some of the growing negativity around data center projects, although it will be many years before anyone, including Amazon, can reap the benefits of these new facilities.
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