Amazon signs deals to help spur new small nuclear reactors in Virginia, Washington

Amazon, seeking more low-carbon power for its data centers, has signed deals to help bring small modular nuclear reactors to Virginia and Washington state while making an equity investment in a leading advanced reactor developer.

The company announced in an Oct. 16 statement a deal to support the construction of four advanced reactors in Washington in collaboration with Energy Northwest and several public utilities. Four 80-MW high-temperature gas-cooled reactors from X-energy Reactor Co. will be built as part of the deal, Amazon said. A later phase of that project could result in adding another eight units, it said.

Energy Northwest, in a separate statement, said that Amazon would pay for “the initial feasibility phase” of the project, which would be built near the existing Columbia nuclear plant in Richland, Washington. “We applaud Amazon for being willing to use their financial strength, need for power, and know-how to lead the way to a reliable, carbon-free power future for the region,” Energy Northwest vice president Greg Cullen said in the statement.

The Amazon agreement is a two-year deal to invest in removing risk from the project, Cullen said on the sidelines of a presentation about the agreements at Amazon's HQ2 corporate offices just outside Washington. The deal is expected to result in a term sheet for a future power purchase agreement and to prepare Energy Northwest to submit a construction permit application for the new reactors, he said. In addition, the power company plans to submit an application for a loan guarantee to the US Department of Energy for the project in early 2025, he said.

Amazon is taking on "early mover" risk for the project, Cullen said.

Amazon would have an option to buy electricity from the first four reactors, a total of 320 MW, and the technology company and the utilities would share any future capacity from additional reactors, Energy Northwest said in the statement.

X-Energy and Energy Northwest have previously discussed plans to build up to 12 of X-energy’s Xe-100 reactors. X-energy is proposing to build the first four reactors of that design at a Dow chemical plant in Texas with US government support.

Amazon is also leading a $500 million financing round for privately held X-energy, alongside other investors, including affiliates of Ares Management Corp., and billionaire hedge fund founder Ken Griffin, X-energy said in a separate statement. “The investment includes manufacturing capacity to develop the SMR equipment to support more than 5 GW of new nuclear energy projects utilizing X-energy’s technology,” Amazon said.

That commitment makes the agreement different from other investments in nuclear energy, X-energy CEO Clay Sell said during the presentation.

"If there's anything truly different about this announcement today, it's that many, many companies that desire clean power have said we will buy under PPAs all the clean power you can provide. No company like Amazon has come along and said we are prepared to provide capital and it will provide additional capital to actually build these plants," Sell said.

A third agreement, announced Oct. 16, was a memorandum of understanding between Amazon and Dominion Energy to explore development of an SMR of up to 300 MW at the utility’s North Anna nuclear plant site in central Virginia. Dominion announced in July a request for proposals from SMR vendors to evaluate the potential of developing a nuclear unit at North Anna in Louisa County.

Ed Bain, president of Dominion Energy Virginia, said on the sidelines of the Amazon presentation that Dominion expects responses to the RFP by mid-November and will select a preferred vendor around the end of this year or in the first quarter of 2025.

The announcements are the latest in a series of recent commitments from the biggest data center operators to secure much-needed power from nuclear sources.

Google and advanced nuclear technology developer Kairos Power said Oct. 14 they signed an agreement to deploy 500 MW of advanced nuclear projects beginning in 2030 to power Google data centers.

Driven by the growing computing needs of artificial intelligence products, Amazon acquired a data center connected to a Pennsylvania nuclear plant, and Microsoft this year signed a contract to buy power from a previously shut nuclear plant that Constellation Energy is restarting.

Amazon said it has previously announced that all its electricity has been matched with 100% renewable power well ahead of its 2030 climate target. New sources of low-carbon electricity are needed, however, driving the move to spur the deployment of advanced nuclear units, it said.

"Over the next decade, we need tens of gigawatts more power than we have today to power data centers, to power technology," Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman during the company presentation.

"We've made over 500 investments all around the world in wind energy and solar energy, but those aren't going to be enough. We're not going to be able to create those fast enough, so nuclear is an incredibly important part of reaching that carbon-zero goal for us," he said.

Small modular reactors will allow AWS to build generation near its data centers and, with utility partners, "add energy ... that we desperately need," Garman said.