Amazon will install 12 nuclear reactors in Indiana to power its data centers

The online commerce and cloud computing giant, Amazon, has announced a new investment in a nuclear plant to power its data centers in Indiana.

This center will be made up of 12 SMR nuclear reactors (small modular reactors) Xe-100 from X-energy. In fact, they arise from the company’s collaboration with X-energy and American Electric Power. In total, they will be capable of adding 960 MW (megawatts) of energy to the grid and will be installed in the former coal-fired Breed Generating Station power plant, now decommissioned.

Naturally, the company sells this investment and this plant as “clean energy for Indiana and its citizens,” but the multinational’s main interest is none other than powering its large data centers.

Each module Xe-100 It is a high temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR) with a power of 80MW. Uses helium as coolant and runs on fuel TRISOcomposed of uranium particles encapsulated in several ceramic layers capable of withstanding high temperatures. This technology makes it possible to avoid core meltdowns without the need to use additional cooling systems.

However, it is a technology still in development that could cause delays in its final implementation. As of today, the only images of the project are virtual 3D designs.

Amazon expects to have 5 GW of electrical power in 2039.

The excessive energy consumption of these servers, which are increasingly numerous in the face of the artificial intelligence fever, is pushing technological giants towards nuclear energy.

It is not the first time that Amazon has opted for a project like this; In fact, in Washington they plan to create similar, somewhat smaller facilities. The company has plans to generate up to 5 GW (gigawatts) of power for the year 2039 after its investments in X-energy.

Its competitors are also no strangers to this trend, and companies like Google have plans for their data centers to be powered by these small reactors by 2030.