Another Agreement for Small Modular Reactors to Power Data Centers

X-Energy Reactor Company, LLC (X-energy) announced its collaboration with Amazon to generate and deliver more than 5 gigawatts of new power projects across the U.S. by 2039, representing the largest commercial deployment target of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) to date. The partnership will support future carbon-free projects that will use X-energy’s Xe-100 advanced SMRs as well as long-term power purchase agreements to power Amazon operations, including energy-intensive data centers. Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and other supporters will invest approximately $500 million in Series C-1 financing round for X-energy to help commercialize the technology and bring it to market.

Through its collaboration with Amazon, X-energy plans to build one of North America’s first grid-scale advanced nuclear reactors with Energy Northwest in Washington state, initially supporting one four-unit 320-megawatt (MW) high-temperature gas reactor plant with the option to increase that project to 12 units and 960 MW.

In September 2022, Curtiss-Wright and X-energy signed a preferred strategic supplier agreement to advance the design and deployment of X-energy’s advanced reactor, which is expected to provide the capability to both generate electricity or provide process heat for industrial applications. Under the terms of that agreement, Curtiss-Wright was selected to design and develop three of the most critical systems for the Nuclear Steam Supply System (NSSS) on the Xe-100 reactor, including the helium circulator system, fuel handling system and the reactivity control and safe shutdown system.

X-energy’s Xe-100 is a Generation IV, high-temperature gas-cooled reactor optimized to deliver 320 MW of electric output. The reactor can provide clean, reliable, and safe baseload power to an electricity system or support various industrial applications. X-energy is developing its initial Xe-100 plant at Dow Inc.’s UCC Seadrift Operations manufacturing site on the Texas Gulf Coast. In addition, X-energy’s advanced reactor technology offers remarkable efficiency and resiliency to meet the requirements of energy-intensive data centers.