Amazon looks to advanced nuclear reactors to meet climate goals

Two days after Google cut a "world's first" deal to purchase electricity from advanced nuclear reactors, Amazon announced three new agreements of its own today.

Each deal supports the development of small modular reactors (SMRs), which can be one-tenth to one-quarter the size of a traditional nuclear power plant. If these projects make it to the finish line, SMRs would be a source of carbon pollution-free energy for big tech companies trying to salvage their climate goals by turning to nuclear energy.

Amazon signed an agreement with Energy Northwest, a consortium of public utilities in Washington state, to "enable the development" of four SMRs by the early 2030s. Energy Northwest says Amazon has agreed to "fund the initial feasibility phase" near an existing nuclear energy facility in Richland, Washington. The e-commerce giant would then be able to purchase electricity from the first four modules built with a combined capacity of 320 megawatts. The deal includes "the option to further build out the site" to 12 units generating up to 960MW, which Amazon says would be enough electricity to power 770,000 homes in the US. Additional electricity from the expanded site would be available to Amazon as well as other businesses and homes in the area.

Amazon is also investing in the startup X-energy, which is developing an advanced nuclear reactor design that's expected to be used in the Energy Northwest project. Energy Northwest would ultimately build, own, and operate the reactors. It's been exploring plans for a nuclear facility using X-energy's high-temperature gas-cooled reactor design, Xe-100, since 2020.

X-energy announced a $500 million Series C-1 financing round today "anchored by" Amazon. Beyond the project in Washington, the money is supposed to support the "completion of X-energy's reactor design and licensing" and the development of a fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. X-energy says it's "collaborating" with Amazon to bring more than 5,000MW of new SMR projects on line in the US by 2039, which it says would be the largest commercial deployment target of SMRs yet. To make it all happen, the two companies "plan to establish and standardize a deployment and financing model to develop projects in partnership with infrastructure and utility partners."

In Virginia, utility company Dominion Energy nabbed a deal with Amazon to "explore the development of an SMR project" near its existing North Anna nuclear power station. Virginia is a hub for energy-hungry hyperscale data centers, and Dominion expects electricity demand in the state to double over the next 15 years. The SMR project with Amazon would be able to generate 300MW of power if it comes to fruition.

Nuclear energy has become an attractive source of energy for tech companies, including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, that are struggling to meet commitments they've made on climate change. Data centers burn through a lot of electricity - those used to train AI even more so - and that means more greenhouse gas emissions unless those data centers run on carbon-free energy. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft all have larger carbon footprints today than they did when they made major climate commitments several years ago.

Nuclear reactors are also an appealing option for data centers that run around the clock because, unlike solar and wind farms, they can generate electricity regardless of the weather or time of day. SMRs are also supposed to be faster to build and easier to site than larger traditional nuclear power plants.

These SMR projects are subject to regulatory approval and could still face economic headwinds. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission certified a design for a small modular reactor for the first time in January 2023, a design by a company called NuScale Power. But by November, after facing soaring costs, NuScale had to scrap its plans to build a highly anticipated demonstration power plant.

Big tech has also shown interest in traditional nuclear power plants. In March, Amazon Web Services announced its purchase of a data center campus powered by a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. Microsoft made a deal in September to help revive and purchase power from the shuttered Three Mile Island plant. 

Nuclear energy still faces opposition from advocates concerned about the potential environmental and health risks that come with mining and enriching uranium for reactors and storing radioactive waste.

"It's time for Big Tech to recommit to solutions that work and pose less risk to our environment and health, including making data centers as energy efficient as possible and committing them to be powered by new renewable energy sources," Johanna Neumann, a senior director at the Environment America Research & Policy Center, said in a statement released after Google's SMR announcement this week.