$AMZN (+0,74 %) The online giant and largest cloud provider in the world (AWS) is concretizing the construction of a total of twelve modular mini-reactors, Small Modular Reactors (SMR), in the US state of Washington under the name Cascade Advanced Energy Facility.
In short: Cascade.
As Amazon announced, SMRs from the company X-energy are to be used. Specifically, these are reactors of the Xe-100 type.
Together with other investors, Amazon invested around 500 million US dollars in X-energy in a financing round in October 2024.
The nuclear power plant is to be built on a site outside Richland in the US state of Washington.
The energy supplier Energy Northwest is responsible for the implementation and will build Cascade together with X-energy.
When completed, the plant will comprise up to twelve SMRs.
Initially, there will be four XE-100 mini-reactors with a total output of 320 MW.
According to Amazon's plans, the plant will then be gradually expanded to twelve reactors with a capacity of 960 MW.
The Xe-100 reactors are a new generation of nuclear power plants that run on TRISO (tristuctural isotropic fuel).
The fuel consists of tiny uranium-containing particles that can be embedded in graphite shells.
TRISO has the property of being able to withstand high temperatures, radiation and corrosion. Instead of water, the cooling system of the TRISO SMRs uses liquid salt. The Xe-100 has a modular design so that individual modules can be prefabricated in factories.
Largely CO₂-free energy production
Amazon intends to use the energy it produces for AI applications and other "digital tools" that "are part of our daily lives".
Amazon hopes to use the SMRs to cut CO₂ emissions and reduce the company's carbon footprint. The long-term plan is to feed more than 5 GWh of nuclear-generated electricity into the US power grid by 2039.
This should then also benefit private households.
Up to 3.8 million households could be supplied in this way. Amazon and X-energy have reached agreements with the South Korean companies Doosan Enerbility and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. to get the nuclear power plants up and running as quickly as possible.
However, it will be some time before the plant in Washington is ready.
Construction is not scheduled to begin until the end of the 2020s. Commissioning is then scheduled for the 2030s.
