American Electric Power (AEP) and X-energy have agreed to evaluate a 960-MW small modular reactor (SMR) project in Indiana, backed by Amazon development funding and a proposed long-term power purchase agreement designed to protect existing utility customers from project costs. The 12-reactor project would be the second deployment under Amazon and X-energy’s collaboration to develop more than 5 GW of new U.S. nuclear capacity by 2039.
AEP and X-energy announced the joint development agreement (JDA) on Oct. 19, identifying the retired Breed Generating Station in Sullivan County, Indiana, as a potential location for 12 of X-energy’s 80-MW Xe-100 reactors. The proposed plant would be configured in three groups of four reactors, each totaling 320 MW, for a combined 960 MW.
The companies are evaluating an AEP-owned brownfield site at or near Indiana Michigan Power’s (I&M’s) former coal-fired Breed station. According to AEP, the plant would proceed to construction only if the development reaches a final investment decision (FID). If built, it would supply electricity to the regional grid and could operate for more than 60 years.
Amazon will provide development funding and intends to purchase the plant’s electricity under a long-term contract. AEP said the agreement would cover the costs of the facility and its operations for the contract’s duration, an arrangement intended to protect existing utility customers from the financial risks of developing new nuclear capacity.
“Our agreements with Amazon and X-energy will provide all necessary capital protections and financial safeguards that we have said are essential for any potential nuclear project to move forward,” AEP Chairman, President and CEO Bill Fehrman said in the announcement.
The development follows two other major customer-linked generation announcements by AEP. On Oct. 14, the utility announced plans to invest approximately $4 billion in a 702-MW Bloom Energy fuel cell development in Wyoming to supply Google under a 20-year agreement. On Oct. 13, Mainspring Energy announced an agreement to supply AEP up to 1.6 GW of linear generators through 2034.
The Indiana plant would also represent the second project under Amazon and X-energy’s nuclear collaboration, following Energy Northwest’s Cascade Advanced Energy Facility in Washington. As POWER reported in October 2025, Cascade’s full build-out envisions 12 Xe-100 reactors totaling 960 MW, beginning with a 320-MW, four-reactor block.
Amazon’s Nuclear Investment Strategy Takes Shape in Indiana
The proposed Indiana project builds on an investment relationship between Amazon and X-energy that began in 2024, when Amazon led the reactor developer’s Series C-1 financing round through its $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund. According to Amazon’s Oct. 19 announcement, the financing round ultimately closed at $700 million, supporting completion of X-energy’s reactor design and licensing activities and the first phase of its TRISO-X nuclear fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
That investment accompanied a broader collaboration targeting more than 5 GW of new U.S. nuclear capacity by 2039. Amazon is now supporting individual developments through project funding and commitments to purchase electricity.
At Cascade, Amazon agreed to fund initial feasibility work and secured rights to purchase electricity from the first 320-MW block. The Indiana proposal follows a similar commercial approach, although Amazon’s stated intent to purchase electricity covers the proposed 960-MW facility.
X-energy said Amazon’s contribution to the Indiana development would be milestone-based. Amazon, meanwhile, said it would serve as the plant’s first electricity customer, purchasing output once the facility becomes operational. The company expects the nuclear capacity to serve both the regional grid and its expanding data center operations.
“Together, we’re looking to develop nearly a gigawatt of carbon-free power for the regional grid and pay our full costs without passing them to others,” Josh Weissman, Amazon’s vice president of Data Center Infrastructure Capacity Delivery, said on Oct. 19.
Amazon also linked the proposed nuclear development to its participation in the White House Ratepayer Protection Pledge, under which the company committed to paying the full electricity costs of serving its data centers, including additional infrastructure needed to accommodate their demand.
AEP would contribute nuclear operating experience through I&M, which operates the 2,278-MW Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant in Michigan. I&M’s 2024 integrated resource plan selected subsequent license renewal for both Cook units.
X-energy’s Xe-100 Technology and Commercial Development
The Xe-100 is an 80-MW high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) that uses helium as its coolant and tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel. The fuel consists of uranium particles encapsulated within multiple protective ceramic layers engineered to retain fission products at high temperatures. X-energy emphasizes the reactor’s passive safety characteristics and compact footprint, which it says support deployment at industrial facilities and existing power generation sites.
Amazon also highlighted the technology’s cooling flexibility. According to the company, Xe-100 plants can use air-cooled condensers, water-cooled systems, or hybrid cooling configurations depending on local conditions and available water resources.
X-energy said the Indiana proposal is its third announced commercial Xe-100 project in the U.S. and fourth worldwide, part of an approximately 11.5-GW commercial pipeline. Its first planned U.S. deployment is a four-reactor project at Dow’s Seadrift manufacturing complex on the Texas Gulf Coast, which is designed to supply both electricity and high-temperature industrial steam. According to X-energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is in the final stages of reviewing the project’s construction permit application.
For now, the Indiana development remains at the feasibility stage. The companies have not disclosed the proposed plant’s capital cost, Amazon’s development funding commitment, the term or price of the planned electricity contract, or the eventual ownership structure. They also have not announced an FID date, construction schedule, commercial operation target, or NRC licensing pathway.
Editor’s note: This is a developing story. POWER will update this report as additional details become available.
