Amazon has agreed to fund a new nuclear plant in Indiana, with X-energy and American Electric Power (AEP) as partners, to supply both the regional grid and its own data centers.
The proposed facility would sit in Fairbanks, in Sullivan County, and replace the defunct coal-fueled Breed Generating Station. It aims to deliver up to 960 megawatts of carbon-free power. The plan calls for 12 Xe-100 reactors, a small modular reactor (SMR) design: a compact, factory-built unit meant to be cheaper and faster to deploy than a traditional plant. Twelve reactors producing 960 megawatts works out to about 80 megawatts each.
No timeline for construction or operation has been announced. Amazon said the project "could" create 1,000 construction jobs and 100 permanent roles, which is a projection, not a commitment.
The larger caveat is the technology. The Xe-100 is an advanced reactor that remains unproven, so the plant's cost and schedule rest on a design that has not yet run commercially at this scale. Several years of work remain before the facility is complete.
The deal fits a pattern. Data centers draw steady, round-the-clock power, and large tech companies have increasingly looked to nuclear as a source that does not depend on weather. Putting reactors on a retired coal site also pairs new generation with a location that was presumably built for heavy power infrastructure, though the source does not detail what is being reused.
The open question is who carries the risk if the first-of-a-kind build runs late or over budget: Amazon as the funder, AEP as the utility partner, or the ratepayers who share the regional grid.