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Big companies are betting big on nuclear (CNBC). 
 
What’s going on: “Amazon is investing more than $500 million in nuclear power, announcing three projects from Virginia to Washington state,” including exploring the development of a small modular nuclear reactor in partnership with Dominion Energy near the utility’s nuclear generating station in Mineral, Virginia. The state “is home to nearly half of all the data centers in the U.S.”

• The Department of Energy recently announced a $1.52 billion loan to energy technology company Holtec International for the first-ever restart of a shuttered nuclear power plant: Michigan’s Palisades Nuclear Generating Station. 
• Also in October, Google announced that it would start buying energy from SMR developer Kairos Power.
• In September, Microsoft agreed to purchase power from the Unit 1 reactor of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, which is tentatively scheduled for a 2028 reopening. 

Additional deals: “Amazon also announced a new agreement with Energy Northwest, a consortium of public utilities, to fund the development, licensing and construction of four SMRs in Washington state,” according to CNBC.

• In addition, Amazon is also investing in X-energy, a company that is developing SMR technology and fuel that will be used at the Energy Northwest site and help bring more than five gigawatts of new nuclear energy forward over the coming 15 years. This is the largest commercial deployment of SMRs to date.  
• Last year, Amazon signed an agreement to purchase nuclear power from Talen Energy’s Susquehanna Steam Electric Station in Pennsylvania and bought Talen’s nearby nuclear-powered data center campus.

Why they’re doing it: “We see the need for gigawatts of power in the coming years, and there’s not going to be enough wind and solar projects to be able to meet the needs, and so nuclear is a great opportunity,” AWS CEO Matthew Garman said.

• “Also, the technology is really advancing to a place with SMRs where there’s going to be a new technology that’s going to be safe and that’s going to be easy to manufacture in a much smaller form,” he continued.

By the numbers: The approximate expected net increase in U.S. energy demand in the coming years is 15%, DOE Deputy Secretary David Turk recently, according to POLITICO Pro (subscription). This is due to data center growth, increased electrification and greater use of artificial intelligence.  

• “Dominion projects that power demand will increase by 85% over the next 15 years. AWS expects the new SMRs to bring at least 300 megawatts of power to the Virginia region,” CNBC reports.  

Why it’s important: Nuclear is the largest single source of carbon-free energy in the United States—and next-generation technology, such as small modular nuclear reactors, improve on already sound nuclear fuel cycle economics. 

The NAM says: “Nuclear generation is a clean, safe means of providing much-needed, reliable energy, and it will only become more important in the next few years and decades,” said NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Chris Phalen. “Investments like Amazon’s are critical to securing our energy future and bringing down costs.”