Amazon will fund the development of a 960-megawatt nuclear power plant in Indiana, made up of 12 X-energy Xe-100 small modular reactors. The agreement with X-energy and utility American Electric Power (AEP) was signed on October 19, 2026. Amazon will be the first buyer of the electricity.
The site is the former Breed Generating Station, a decommissioned coal plant in Sullivan County, south of Terre Haute. The reactors will be arranged in three groups of four. Each unit produces 80 megawatts of electricity (200 thermal), is helium-cooled and uses TRISO fuel, uranium particles designed to withstand extreme temperatures. The power will go to the regional grid and to Amazon’s data centers.
The roles are clearly defined. Amazon funds development and signs a long-term power purchase agreement. X-energy supplies the technology. AEP, through its subsidiary Indiana Michigan Power, will operate the plant: the company has run a nuclear power station for more than fifty years. The project is at the evaluation and development stage, and for now there is no construction date or budget.
The project is the second to emerge from the Amazon–X-energy collaboration, which aims to add more than 5 gigawatts of nuclear capacity in the United States by 2039. It is three times larger than the first agreement, announced two years ago. In 2024, Amazon led a $700 million funding round to complete the reactor design and start up the TRISO-X fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. X-energy also reports that the construction permit for another project is in the final stages of review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The driver is data center demand. AI workloads require power available around the clock, and big tech companies are seeking it from plants that emit no CO2. Repurposing a former coal site has a practical advantage: grid connections, land and workforce expertise are already in place.
If the project moves forward, Sullivan County could host one of the first high-temperature modular reactor plants in the United States. For Italy, which is reopening the debate on SMRs, it is a case worth following: it shows how an industrial customer with well-defined energy needs can drive the first series of reactors.
