Amazon to fund 12 small nuclear reactors on an old Indiana coal plant site, 960 MW for the grid and data centres
X-energy will supply twelve Xe-100 reactors and AEP will run the plant near Terre Haute. The deal is about three times the size of Amazon's first nuclear agreement in 2024.
Amazon will fund a plant of twelve small modular nuclear reactors on the site of a demolished coal power station just south of Terre Haute, Indiana, TechCrunch reported on Monday, 19 October.
The deal in numbers
- Reactors: 12 X-energy Xe-100 small modular reactors (SMRs)
- Capacity: 960 megawatts, close to one gigawatt
- Operator: American Electric Power (AEP)
- Buyer: Amazon, the first customer for the power, which says it will also serve its data centres. The plant will connect to the public grid.
- Cost: not disclosed
Why a coal site
Old coal plants already have grid connections, cooling water and land zoned for power generation, which shortens one of the slowest parts of building a new plant. Reusing them has become a common pitch for small reactors in the US.
Still a long way off
The timeline depends on X-energy finishing its first plant, at Dow Chemical's Seadrift site in Texas, which has not yet broken ground and is waiting for a final permit review by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Amazon and X-energy aim to bring 5 gigawatts of new US nuclear capacity online by 2039.
In October 2024, Amazon led a $700 million investment round in X-energy and signed its first agreement for small reactors. The Indiana project is roughly three times larger than that first deal.
Why it matters beyond the US
Tech companies are racing to secure steady, low-carbon electricity for AI data centres, and nuclear is the one source that runs day and night without emissions. For Pakistan, which already generates nuclear power at Chashma and Karachi, the US push on small reactors is worth watching: SMRs are pitched as cheaper and quicker to build than the large units Pakistan buys from China, though none of the Western designs has yet produced commercial power.
If you are weighing your own power costs at home, our solar payback calculator and electricity bill calculator show what a unit of grid power costs you against rooftop solar.
Frequently asked questions
- How many reactors will Amazon fund in Indiana?
- Twelve X-energy Xe-100 small modular reactors with a combined 960 megawatts, on a former coal plant site south of Terre Haute.
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