Amazon unveils plans for a modular nuclear facility in Washington to power AI and advance carbon-free energy goals.
A new kind of power surge is coming, and it’s not digital.
Amazon is plugging into advanced nuclear energy, taking its sustainability goals to the next level with plans for a new small modular reactor (SMR) facility in Washington state.
Called the CascadeAdvanced Energy Facility, the project will help reduce Amazon’s carbon emissions, power its operations with clean energy, and supply carbon-free electricity to the grid.
The facility will also support the growing demand for energy to run artificial intelligence and digital technologies.
In partnership with Washington-based utility Energy Northwest and SMR developer X-energy, Amazon plans to build up to 12 SMRs near the Columbia Generating Station in Richland.
The company’s first investment in nuclear technology marks what it calls “a new chapter” in powering its operations with carbon-free energy.
Building a cleaner tomorrow
SMRs are next-generation nuclear reactors that are smaller and safer than traditional plants. Their modular design allows faster construction, lower costs, and flexible deployment.
“This project isn’t just about new technology; it’s about creating a reliable source of carbon-free energy that will support our growing digital world,” said Kara Hurst, Amazon’s chief sustainability officer. “I’m excited about the potential of SMRs and the positive impact they will have on both the environment and local communities.”
Amazon has invested billions of dollars in carbon-free energy projects, including nuclear, through its Climate Pledge Fund. The Cascade facility will use X-energy’s Xe-100 reactor design, with an initial capacity of 320 megawatts and the potential to expand to 960 MW. Construction is expected to begin by the end of the decade, with operations targeted for the 2030s.
“One year ago, we set out with Amazon to reimagine the way in which we advance new energy projects in the United States,” said J. Clay Sell, CEO of X-energy.
“The support of Amazon has enabled us to accelerate progress on our technology, grow our team, and position the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility at the forefront of energy innovation.”
Powering communities, not just data
The project is expected to create more than 1,000 construction jobs and over 100 permanent positions in engineering and nuclear operations.
To strengthen local talent, Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Washington, is launching an Energy Learning Center with a simulator that replicates X-energy’s control room.
“Investing in advanced training simulators prepares future operators and builds the foundation for a clean energy workforce that will power our region for decades to come,” said Bob Schuetz, CEO of Energy Northwest.
For Amazon, Cascade is part of a broader effort to add more than 5 gigawatts of new nuclear energy to the U.S. grid by 2039, enough to power 3.8 million homes. It also aligns with the company’s record as the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy since 2020.
With projects like Cascade, Amazon is proving its clean energy ambitions go beyond words, they’re being built, megawatt by megawatt.
Amazon and the other data mining firms are paving the way and soon NZ will have their own nuclear power plants and any excess power can be fed into our national grid to help elevate any shortages to stop power cuts and brownouts here in NZ!
The world needs automation, not AI. The huge energy drain of AI is not to serve mankind. It is to breed a super intelligence. Skynet.
you are correct but surely AI will perfect the kind of automation that will benefit the NZ economy.
Sooty – I want to believe that NZ will accept the small scale nuclear plants but consider it less likely than Christmas day falling on Good Friday.
Traditional nuclear was never going to fly in a seismologically unstable area such as NZ straddles but modular nuclear ticks the boxes.
But it doesn’t matter. Forty years ago NZ declared itself nuclear free & it now defines us. The chattering classes will willingly freeze to death in caves while waffling about wind & solar rather than see a single reactor built.
The expense of political capital that would be required to get NZ nuclear over the line means that it will never happen.