Amazon to fund early development of proposed 960-megawatt small modular reactor project in Indiana

Amazon said Monday it is funding early development of a proposed small modular reactor project in Indiana with reactor developer X-energy and American Electric Power, in a plan that would aim to bring nearly 1 gigawatt of new carbon-free electricity to the grid.

In a corporate newsroom post published Oct. 19, Amazon said the companies “have signed an agreement to explore deploying X-energy’s small modular reactor (SMR) technology in Indiana.” The company said it will serve as a project development funder and “would be the first customer to purchase power from the plant once operational.”

The proposal is notable both for its scale and for Amazon’s role. Large technology companies have increasingly sought around-the-clock carbon-free electricity to support energy-hungry data centers, but this arrangement goes beyond a typical power purchase by putting Amazon into the project’s early development phase for a sizable new nuclear plant.

According to Amazon, the Indiana project “will target building 12 of X-energy’s Xe-100 SMRs” at the former Breed Generating Station in Sullivan County. X-energy’s Xe-100 is an 80-megawatt electric reactor design, and Amazon said 12 units would total 960 megawatts of new generating capacity.

Amazon said the project could create more than 1,000 construction jobs and more than 100 permanent jobs, though those figures are company estimates tied to a plant that has not been approved or built.

The announcement points to a broader transition underway at some retired fossil-fuel sites, where developers are looking to reuse existing industrial locations for lower-carbon generation. In this case, Amazon is proposing a planned nuclear energy project at a former coal plant site in southwestern Indiana.

Still, the public details available Monday came from Amazon’s own announcement, not from a separate public press release by AEP, its utility subsidiary Indiana Michigan Power, or X-energy confirming the Indiana project. Amazon’s post describes an agreement to explore development, not a final investment or construction decision.

That distinction matters. Any reactor project in Indiana would require extensive federal review, including licensing by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the independent agency that regulates U.S. commercial nuclear plants. For advanced reactor projects, that process can take years. State-level reviews would also likely be required before construction could move ahead.

Amazon framed the Indiana effort as the second project in its collaboration with X-energy. The first is the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility in Washington state. More broadly, Amazon said its partnership with X-energy aims to add “more than 5 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity to the U.S. grid by 2039.”

The Indiana proposal is therefore both a local redevelopment plan and part of a much larger bet by Amazon on new nuclear generation as a future power source. But for now, the project remains at an exploratory stage: a large proposed plant, on a former coal site, with Amazon lined up to help fund development and buy electricity if the reactors are ultimately built.