Amazon, American Electric Power and X-energy announced a proposed 960-megawatt nuclear plant at the site of Indiana’s retired Breed Generating Station. The facility would use 12 Xe-100 small modular reactors, and Amazon would be the first customer for the power. The reports covering the deal agree on these core details.
The financial structure is central to the announcement. Utility Dive reports that Amazon would purchase power under a long-term contract that covers the facility’s costs and operations. TechCrunch notes the agreement is the second commercial deal between Amazon and X-energy and is three times larger than the first; together, the companies have said they plan to build more than 5 gigawatts of new U.S. nuclear capacity by 2039.
The reports differ on a few specifics. TechCrunch describes the site as a demolished coal plant just south of Terre Haute, while The Verge identifies it as Fairbanks in Sullivan County and says the project could create 1,000 construction jobs and 100 permanent roles. Utility Dive says the companies are still evaluating the former AEP-owned site and that no construction timeline has been announced.
Open questions remain. None of the reports gives a start date for construction, and X-energy has yet to break ground on its first Xe-100 deployment at a Dow Chemical plant near Houston, which remains under Nuclear Regulatory Commission review. The Indiana project is part of a broader push by tech companies to add nuclear power for data centers and the electric grid.