960-Megawatt Nuclear Plant in Indiana to Power Amazon Data Centers

Amazon has signed an agreement with X-energy and American Electric Power to fund a new nuclear facility in Sullivan County, Indiana, designed to supply up to 960 megawatts of carbon-free power to the regional grid and to Amazon's data centers, according to reporting from The Verge.

The proposed plant would replace the Breed Generating Station, a coal-fueled facility in Fairbanks, Indiana, that is no longer in operation, The Verge reported. No construction or operation timeline has been announced for the new site.

What technology would the plant use?

The Indiana project is targeting the construction of 12 Xe-100 small modular reactors, a reactor design from X-energy that The Verge described as advanced but still unproven, since it remains in development and licensing. The reactors can be cooled with air, water, or a hybrid of both, a feature Amazon said should let the units operate in water-constrained regions without adding to local water demand, per The Verge.

Why is Amazon funding a nuclear plant instead of buying power on the open market?

Amazon's data centers, which run the computing infrastructure behind its cloud and AI services, require large and steady electricity supplies. By funding generation directly with X-energy and AEP, Amazon secures a dedicated carbon-free source tied to its own operations while the output also feeds the regional grid, according to The Verge's account of the agreement. The arrangement mirrors a broader pattern among large technology companies turning to nuclear power, including small modular reactors, to meet data center demand without relying solely on existing grid capacity.

How many jobs would the project create?

Amazon told The Verge the facility "could" generate 1,000 construction jobs and 100 permanent positions once operational. Both figures were described as potential rather than committed, and no binding job guarantees were included in the reporting.

What happens to the old coal plant site?

The new nuclear facility would rise on the site of the retired Breed Generating Station, the coal-fired plant in Fairbanks that AEP had already taken offline, according to The Verge. The move fits a pattern of utilities repurposing shuttered fossil-fuel sites for next-generation power projects rather than building on undeveloped land.

What's still unresolved?

The Xe-100 reactor design has not completed licensing, and The Verge's reporting did not specify a construction start date, a completion date, or a total project cost. Those gaps mean the 960-megawatt figure represents a planning target tied to the agreement rather than a guaranteed output from an operating plant.

The Indiana announcement lands as lawmakers in Washington weigh separate questions about electricity costs and consumer protections tied to rising grid demand, a debate detailed in HTT News' coverage of the Senate's Ratepayer Protection Act vote. Whether new generation projects like the Sullivan County facility ease or add to ratepayer costs was not addressed in Amazon's announcement.