Tech giant Amazon has announced plans to build a small modular reactor (SMR) facility in Washington state to provide carbon-free energy for its expanding data centres and AI infrastructure.
The Cascade Advanced Energy Facility will be built outside Richland, Washington. A collaboration between Amazon, Washington-based utility Energy Northwest and SMR developer X-energy, the facility will feature up to 12 SMRs.
Amazon said that these SMRs will power its operations with clean energy and supply carbon-free electricity to the grid.
Like other tech giants, including Meta and Microsoft, Amazon intends to harness nuclear energy to help power its AI efforts. The reason for this is reliability of energy supply and reduction in carbon emissions.
Whereas nuclear plants typically take a decade or more to come online, SMRs are entirely factory-built facilities that can be transported as modules and assembled on-site, radically reducing construction and deployment time. They also have a significantly...