Despite technological and regulatory hurdles, Amazon remains convinced that small modular reactors (SMRs) are the answer to the cloud titan’s power woes.
Last fall, the house of Bezos announced a $500 million investment in SMR startup X-Energy. On Thursday, the e-tailer revealed that X-Energy’s Xe-100 SMR designs would eventually supply Washington State with “up to” 960 megawatts of clean energy.
“Eventually” is the key word here as construction isn’t expected to start until the end of the decade and the plants won’t begin operations until sometime in the 2030s.
The plan is to deploy the 80 megawatt reactors at a new facility called the Cascade Nuclear Energy Center outside Richland, Washington, in three phases, each totaling 320 megawatts of generative output. For context, xAI’s 200,000-GPU Colossus supercomputer uses roughly 300 megawatts of power when it is fully utilized.
Amazon notes that X-Energy’s SMRs should be smaller, faster to deploy, and cheaper to operate than conventional pressurized water reactors. This is a common argument in support of the miniaturized nuclear power plants, but it’s worth noting that the tech hasn’t actually been proven out. In fact, higher-than-expected operating costs have already doomed one early SMR project.
And that’s not the only challenge facing X-Energy. The company’s SMR tech has yet to receive Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval, which is required before construction of the reactor itself can begin. But that’s not stopping Amazon from sharing 3D renders of what the power plant might look like when complete.
Here’s a 3D rendering of what the Cascade Nuclear Energy Center in Richland, Washington might look like if completed. – Click to enlarge
Despite these barriers, Amazon remains confident in the technology and plans to deploy 5 gigawatts worth of X-Energy SMRs by 2039. The two companies have even enlisted the help of South Korea’s Doosan Enerbility and Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power to help them support the deployment of SMRs across the US.
Amazon isn’t the only one going all-in on atomic power to fuel its datacenter aspirations. Oracle plans to field at least three SMRs to power a gigawatt scale nuclear reactor, though specific details remain thin.
Google-backed Kairos Power, meanwhile, plans to deploy a 50MW molten salt reactor outside Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Much like X-Energy Kairos Hermes 2 demonstrator isn’t expected to come online until after 2030. However, with NRC approval already in hand, Kairos stands a better chance of delivering a working reactor on time.
With that said, the company will still need the green light before it can actually power up the reactor for the first time.
In the meantime, cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft are turning to more conventional sources of nuclear energy to meet their energy demands without completely abandoning their sustainability goals.
Early last year, Amazon acquired Cumulus Data’s atomic datacenters in a deal valued at $650 million. The facilities, located alongside the 2.5 gigawatt Susquehanna nuclear power plant in northeast Pennsylvania could eventually scale to 960 megawatts under the deal.
Microsoft, meanwhile, is helping to finance the re-ignition of the Three Mile Island Unit-1 reactor. And in case you’re wondering, this isn’t the same reactor that partially melted down back in 1979. The reactor is now expected to begin operations again starting in 2027.
The Register reached out to X-Energy regarding its timeline for NRC approval, but had not heard back at the time of publication. ®
