Amazon to Fund 960-Megawatt Nuclear Plant on Retired Indiana Coal Site

Amazon to Fund 960-Megawatt Nuclear Plant on Retired Indiana Coal Site

Twelve small reactors planned for former coal station

Amazon will fund development of a proposed 960-megawatt nuclear plant in Sullivan County, Indiana, on the site of the retired Breed Generating Station near Fairbanks, just south of Terre Haute. The plan calls for 12 Xe-100 small modular reactors supplied by X-energy, each rated at 80 megawatts of electrical capacity, arranged in three groups of four. Utility American Electric Power would operate the facility through a joint development agreement with X-energy. Power would serve both the regional grid and Amazon's data center portfolio.

Amazon pays development money and buys the power

Under the structure announced on Oct. 19, Amazon provides project development funding, including milestone-based capital for feasibility work, and would be the first offtaker under a long-term contract covering facility and operating costs if the plant is built and enters commercial operation. AEP said the agreements include capital protections and financial safeguards it considers essential for any nuclear project to advance. Josh Weissman, Amazon vice president of data center infrastructure capacity delivery, said the company intends to develop nearly a gigawatt of carbon-free power for the regional grid and pay its full costs without passing them to others.

Data center demand pushes tech toward nuclear

The project responds to growing electricity demand in Indiana and Amazon's expanding data center load. The Xe-100 is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor using helium coolant and TRISO fuel, described by the U.S. Department of Energy as highly robust fuel able to withstand extreme heat without melting. DatacenterDynamics noted each unit also produces further thermal power. AEP's Indiana Michigan Power utility has operated a nuclear plant for more than 50 years, which the companies cite as operating experience for the new project. For Amazon, the nearly one gigawatt of firm carbon-free capacity supports its Climate Pledge goal of net-zero carbon across operations by 2040.

Sullivan County sees jobs and decades of tax base

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun said the project could bring well-paying jobs to Sullivan County, which recently joined the Indiana Advanced Nuclear Ready Communities Program. Amazon said the facility could create about 1,000 construction jobs and 100 permanent roles, plus tax revenue for decades. AEP said the project could strengthen Indiana energy infrastructure for more than 60 years. The retired coal site is an AEP-owned brownfield, and redevelopment would add clean baseload capacity in a region already familiar with nuclear operation at the Cook plant in Bridgman, Michigan.

Feasibility study only, no construction date given

The companies have not announced a construction or operation timeline, and Amazon has not disclosed its funding amount. The project must still complete feasibility work and reach a final investment decision. It is the second commercial deployment under the Amazon-X-energy collaboration aimed at bringing more than 5 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity to the U.S. grid by 2039. The first is Energy Northwest's Cascade Advanced Energy Facility in Washington state, also planned with 12 advanced reactors, with construction not expected until late this decade. X-energy said Indiana is its third announced commercial Xe-100 project in the United States and fourth worldwide, within an approximately 11.5-gigawatt commercial pipeline.