A first look at Amazon's nuclear power plants

Amazon has revealed new details about its strategy for using nuclear energy in Washington state, where the company is headquartered.

About a year ago, Amazon struck a deal with Energy Northwest, a Washington-based association of public utilities, to support development of up to 12 advanced nuclear reactors over the next decade. Once the project is complete, Amazon will have the right to purchase electricity from the first phase of the project, which will have a capacity of 320 megawatts. Additional capacity created by any subsequent reactors will be available to Amazon and local utilities.

Importantly, these reactors are small and modular (SMR), which should make them cheaper and easier to install than existing, conventional nuclear power plants in the U.S. Amazon has also released the first renderings of what the first plant near Richland, Washington, called the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility, will look like.

The Cascade facility will have three sections with a total capacity of 960 megawatts, enough to power about 770,000 American homes. While a conventional reactor of similar capacity would occupy more than 2.6 square kilometers, Cascade is expected to occupy an area comparable to just a few city blocks.

Amazon says in its announcement that the Cascade facility is expected to create about 100 permanent jobs and more than 1,000 construction jobs. Because the next-generation reactors are still in the development phase and must obtain the appropriate licenses, construction is not expected to begin until the end of this decade.