{"id":4430,"date":"2026-11-04T20:32:21","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T19:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/energianucleare.eu\/amazon-backs-960-mw-cascade-project-with-x-energy-xe-100-reactors-in-richland\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T20:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T19:32:21","slug":"amazon-backs-960-mw-cascade-project-with-x-energy-xe-100-reactors-in-richland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/energianucleare.eu\/en\/amazon-backs-960-mw-cascade-project-with-x-energy-xe-100-reactors-in-richland\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon Backs 960 MW Cascade Project with X-energy Xe-100 Reactors in Richland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Amazon<\/strong> is preparing the <strong>Cascade Advanced Energy Facility<\/strong> in Richland, Washington, a plant with up to 12 small modular reactors (SMRs) that would reach 960 MW of capacity. The company is financing it together with Energy Northwest and tying it to its plans for new data centers in the state.<\/p>\n<p>Cascade will be built next to the Columbia Generating Station, the only commercial nuclear plant in the US Northwest. The project is modular: three 320 MW sections make up the complete facility. The technology is the <strong>Xe-100<\/strong> reactor from X-energy, a Maryland-based company in which Amazon invested $500 million in its Series C round.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement with Energy Northwest, a consortium of 29 public utilities and municipalities in the state, was signed in 2024. The first phase calls for four reactors totaling 320 MWe, with the option to scale up to 960 MWe. The first modules are expected to enter service starting in the early 2030s. Even the most optimistic window given by Energy Northwest places completion between 2032 and 2035.<\/p>\n<p>Cascade is the first step in a broader program. Amazon&#8217;s investment includes manufacturing capacity for SMR components, supporting more than 5 GW of new nuclear projects using X-energy technology by 2039. In its SEC filing, X-energy calls this target the largest commercial SMR deployment plan announced to date. In August, X-energy and Amazon also signed an agreement with <strong>Korea Hydro &#038; Nuclear Power<\/strong> and Doosan Enerbility to bring Xe-100 reactors to the United States.<\/p>\n<p>The driver is the electricity demand of AI data centers, which require continuous, carbon-free power. A single large facility can draw one gigawatt, the output of a conventional reactor. Amazon cites its multibillion-dollar investments in new nuclear among its responses to residents&#8217; concerns about its first data centers in the state. Kara Hurst, the company&#8217;s chief sustainability officer, describes the project as a reliable source of zero-emission power for the digital world.<\/p>\n<p>The industrial side is matched by workforce training. Columbia Basin College in Pasco has secured Department of Energy funding for the Energy Learning Center, which will feature a simulator replicating the Xe-100 control room. Students will train on the same machine that will operate in Richland.<\/p>\n<p>If the schedule holds, Cascade would become one of the first commercial SMR hubs in the US and a model for other operators. A customer like Amazon, which pays for development before any power is produced, can give manufacturers the order volume needed to move from one-off projects to serial production.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amazon is funding the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility in Richland, Washington: up to 12 X-energy Xe-100 small modular reactors totaling 960 MW. The plant will serve the company&#8217;s data centers and adds to the new sites Amazon is preparing in the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":4427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Amazon Backs 960 MW Cascade Project with X-energy Xe-100 Reactors in Richland - Energia nucleare<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Amazon funds the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility in Richland: up to 12 X-energy Xe-100 SMRs totaling 960 MW to power data centers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/energianucleare.eu\/en\/amazon-backs-960-mw-cascade-project-with-x-energy-xe-100-reactors-in-richland\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amazon Backs 960 MW Cascade Project with X-energy Xe-100 Reactors in Richland - 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