Amazon bets big on small nuclear reactors to power data centers

Amazon is betting heavily on nuclear power to keep its data centers running. On the heels of Google's announcement of its own nuclear deal, Amazon unveiled three separate agreements to develop small modular reactors—compact nuclear plants that operate at a fraction of the size and cost of traditional facilities. The company is making a calculated wager that these smaller reactors can deliver the reliable, carbon-free electricity its sprawling infrastructure demands while helping it meet climate commitments that have grown harder to keep.

Small modular reactors, or SMRs, are designed to be one-tenth to one-quarter the size of conventional nuclear power plants. This matters because data centers run continuously, consuming enormous amounts of power regardless of weather or time of day—a problem that solar and wind farms cannot solve alone. Unlike renewables, nuclear reactors generate electricity around the clock, making them attractive to companies trying to decarbonize while maintaining the computational capacity their services require.

The first agreement pairs Amazon with Energy Northwest, a consortium of public utilities in Washington state. Under the deal, Amazon will fund the initial feasibility work for four small modular reactors to be built near an existing nuclear facility in Richland by the early 2030s. The first four units would generate 320 megawatts of power—enough, Amazon claims, to supply electricity to 770,000 American homes. The agreement includes an option to expand the site to twelve reactors producing up to 960 megawatts, with surplus power available to other regional customers. Energy Northwest will own and operate the reactors; Amazon will purchase the electricity.

Amazon is also investing directly in X-energy, a startup developing advanced reactor designs expected to be used in the Washington project. The company announced a $500 million financing round anchored by Amazon, money intended to complete the reactor's design, secure regulatory approval, and build a fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Amazon and X-energy say they plan to deploy more than 5,000 megawatts of new small modular reactor capacity across the United States by 2039—a scale they describe as the largest commercial SMR deployment target yet attempted.

A third agreement involves Dominion Energy, a Virginia utility company, which will explore developing an SMR project near its existing North Anna nuclear station. Virginia has become a hub for data center construction, and Dominion projects that electricity demand in the state will double over the next fifteen years. An SMR facility there could generate 300 megawatts if approved and built.

But these projects face real obstacles. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission certified its first small modular reactor design in January 2023, a design from NuScale Power. Yet by November of that year, NuScale abandoned plans for a demonstration plant after costs spiraled beyond what the company could manage. Regulatory approval remains uncertain, and the economics of building new nuclear capacity—even at smaller scales—remain unproven. Environmental advocates have also raised concerns about uranium mining, enrichment, and the long-term storage of radioactive waste, arguing that tech companies should instead prioritize making data centers more efficient and powering them with renewable energy sources.

What Amazon and Google are signaling is clear: they believe nuclear energy, particularly in modular form, is essential to their future. Whether regulators, communities, and the market will agree remains an open question. The next few years will determine whether these ambitious timelines hold or whether the SMR industry faces the same cost pressures that derailed NuScale's plans.