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Image Credits:Romilly Lockyer / Getty Images9:55 AM PDT · October 19, 2026
Amazon is backing improvement of a projected 960-megawatt atomic works successful Indiana and would beryllium the archetypal lawsuit to bargain its power, the companies announced Monday. Utility institution American Electric Power (AEP) would run the plant. X-energy, which designs tiny modular atomic reactors and went nationalist successful April, would proviso the reactors.
The caller powerfulness works would dwell of 12 Xe-100 tiny modular reactors and beryllium located connected the tract of a demolished ember powerfulness works conscionable southbound of Terre Haute. The woody is the 2nd commercialized statement betwixt Amazon and X-energy, and it’s 3 times larger than the first, which was announced 2 years ago.
Amazon has invested heavily successful X-energy, starring a $700 cardinal Series C-1 circular successful October 2024. The 2 companies person said they yet program to physique 5 gigawatts of caller atomic generating capableness successful the U.S. by 2039.
Unlike galore recently announced powerfulness plants, these reactors would beryllium connected to the nationalist electrical grid, though Amazon says the powerfulness would besides service its information centers.
The companies’ assertive timeline inactive depends connected X-energy successfully delivering its archetypal powerfulness works astatine a Dow Chemical works southeast of Houston, Texas. The site, called Seadrift, has precocious been astatine the center of a lawsuit filed by the authorities of Texas, which accuses the works of “habitual non-compliance” with h2o and solid-waste regulations and permits.
X-energy has yet to interruption crushed astatine Seadrift, which volition big 4 Xe-100 reactors to supply the chemic works with vigor and electricity. The institution said its operation licence is successful the last phases of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s reappraisal process.
Startups and ample unreality computing companies are betting that tiny modular reactors (SMRs), similar the benignant being developed by X-energy, volition assistance propulsion the atomic manufacture retired of its slump. The astir caller atomic powerfulness plants built successful the U.S. suffered from egregious fund overruns and slipped timelines.
By shrinking the reactor, companies similar X-energy anticipation that wide manufacturing volition costs and schedules successful line. Even then, it could beryllium a gangly order. Experts accidental wide manufacturing often doesn’t commencement producing benefits for about a decade.
X-energy debuted connected the Nasdaq successful April successful an IPO priced astatine $23 per share. Investor excitement drove the terms up 27% successful the archetypal time of trading, but shares of the recently nationalist institution person dropped by astir two-thirds since then.
News of the Amazon woody sent X-energy’s shares up astir 10% successful pre-market trading, though they were down by little than 2% astatine the clip of publication.
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Tim De Chant is simply a elder clime newsman astatine TechCrunch. He has written for a wide scope of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, wherever helium was founding editor.
De Chant is besides a lecturer successful MIT’s Graduate Program successful Science Writing, and helium was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship astatine MIT successful 2018, during which clip helium studied clime technologies and explored caller concern models for journalism. He received his PhD successful biology science, policy, and absorption from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA grade successful biology studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College.
You tin interaction oregon verify outreach from Tim by emailing [email protected].
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