Despite technical and regulatory hurdles, Amazon still believes that small modular reactors (SMRs) are the optimal solution to the electricity shortage for its data centers.
In the fall of 2024, the company announced an investment of $500 million in the "nuclear" startup X-Energy, and recently it was reported that its Xe-100 reactors will supply the state of Washington with up to 960 MW of "clean" electricity, The Register reports. For comparison, the capacity of the Riga Hydroelectric Power Station is 960 MW.
In particular, 80-MW reactors are planned to be deployed at the Cascade Nuclear Energy Center near Richland. The project is planned to be implemented in three phases, each providing 320 MW.
Amazon claims that the SMRs from X-Energy will be smaller, quicker to install, and cheaper to operate than traditional reactors. The company is so confident in the technology that it intends to deploy SMRs with a total capacity of 5 GW by 2039. It will be assisted by Doosan Enerbility and Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power.
However, construction will not begin until at least the end of this decade, and the SMRs themselves are expected to be operational by the 2030s. Additionally, the technology has not been tested in real conditions, and one of the early SMR projects was shut down due to high operating costs.
Moreover, the company's reactors have not yet received approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which is necessary to begin construction.
Leave a comment