Xe-100 small modular reactors could replace a retired coal plant in Sullivan County, Indiana, if feasibility work by X-energy and American Electric Power (AEP) supports the idea. Amazon is paying for part of the groundwork.
The proposal is a 12-unit plant on the AEP-owned brownfield site of the former Breed Generating Station. Each Xe-100 is rated at 80 megawatts, so the plant would add up to 960 megawatts. Amazon is a project development funder and would be the first customer to buy the power, which would also serve the regional grid. Amazon says the plant could create more than 1,000 construction jobs and more than 100 permanent positions if it is built.
X-energy and AEP signed a joint development agreement for feasibility work, with Amazon backing it through a separate funding agreement. It is not a construction order. X-energy describes Amazon's money as milestone-based development capital. None of the companies has given a construction start, an in-service date or a project cost.
Indiana is the second site in the Amazon and X-energy collaboration, which targets more than 5 gigawatts of new US nuclear capacity, with a 2039 target date. The first is the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility in Washington state, developed with Energy Northwest. X-energy counts the Indiana plan as its third announced commercial Xe-100 project in the US and its fourth worldwide, inside a pipeline of about 11.5 gigawatts. Amazon helped fund the design work earlier by leading X-energy's 2024 Series C-1 round, which closed at $700 million.
The Xe-100 is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor that circulates helium and runs on TRISO fuel, in which uranium is sealed in layers of ceramic. Amazon says that combination lets the reactor's physics prevent a meltdown without active systems or human intervention. The plants can use air-cooled condensers, water-cooled systems or a hybrid, a choice Amazon says suits water-constrained regions.
Cost to local customers is the other thread. Amazon signed the White House Ratepayer Protection Pledge, committing to cover the full cost of electricity for its data centers. Amazon says AEP plans to cut residential rates from 2027 and freeze them for three years, after an average 3.6% base rate cut in June 2026. AEP's Indiana utility, Indiana Michigan Power, puts the saving at about $100 a year for a home using 1,000 kWh a month, and the plan still needs the state regulator's decision, expected in June 2027. AEP chief executive Bill Fehrman said the agreements with Amazon and X-energy will provide the capital protections and financial safeguards AEP has called essential for any nuclear project to proceed.
The first Xe-100 deployment is further along on paper. X-energy's proposed four-unit plant for a Dow manufacturing site on the Texas Gulf Coast is in the final phases of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's review of its construction permit application.
