American Electric Power Co. is working with Amazon.com Inc. to evaluate plans for a 960-megawatt nuclear plant in Indiana using a new reactor design, a project that would rely on unproven technology while potentially advancing efforts to promote next-generation fission.
The companies are jointly exploring whether the project at a retired AEP coal plant would be viable. The proposed facility would use 12 small reactors supplied by X-Energy Inc., which is another partner in the effort, according to a statement Monday. Terms weren’t disclosed.
Technology companies are pursuing nuclear projects for power-hungry data centers, despite the high costs and long development timelines. Reactors can deliver carbon-free power around the clock, but no traditional large-scale plants are under construction in the US and the industry has a history of projects running late and over budget.
The companies said they expect to make a final decision on whether to proceed by late 2029, a timeline that coincides with spiraling power demand across AEP’s service area, according to Shane Lies, president of nuclear development. The Ohio-based company had about 30 gigawatts of total available capacity last year, but needs to add another 63 gigawatts by 2030 and will require even more going forward.
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One gigawatt is roughly equivalent to the output of a traditional nuclear reactor.
“We expect that level of growth to continue beyond 2030,” Lies said in an interview. “We need to bring generation online to meet this unprecedented growth.”
That demand is being driven by industrial users, increasingly electrified homes and, especially, data centers powering artificial intelligence. If the companies move ahead with the project, Amazon would buy the electricity it generates.
Amazon, which has pledged to eliminate or offset all of its carbon emissions by 2040, is powering an unprecedented expansion of its data center fleet in large part with natural gas plants. The company has also embraced nuclear power as a carbon-free alternative, though those projects are years away from coming online.
X-Energy is developing an advanced reactor design that has 80 megawatts of capacity. The Sullivan County, Indiana, plant would potentially be the third planned project using the technology, though none are under construction and the design still requires federal approval.
Dow is planning to install four of them at a Texas chemical plant. And Amazon, which is also a backer of the reactor company, is working with Energy Northwest to develop a project in Washington state that would use as many as 12.
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