Amazon shares a ‘first look’ at new nuclear facility
Amazon has shared new details about its plans to deploy more nuclear power in Washington state, where the company is headquartered.
About a year ago, Amazon announced an agreement with Energy Northwest, a consortium of Washington utilities, to support the development of up to 12 advanced reactors by the early 2030s. Once completed, Amazon would have the right to purchase electricity from the 320-megawatt first phase of the project. The additional capacity would be open to Amazon and local utilities.
The difference with these reactors is that they are small and modular, which is supposed to make them cheaper and easier to deploy than the existing U.S. nuclear power plant fleet. Amazon today shared several rendered images of what the first factory outside of Richland, Washington, could look like. Called the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility, it will include three sections with a combined capacity of 960 megawatts, or about enough electricity to power 770,000 U.S. homes. While an old-fashioned reactor with roughly the same capacity could span more than a square mile of land, according to Amazon, Cascade would only need to take up a few city blocks.
Amazon’s blog today says the Cascade facility is expected to create about 100 permanent jobs, as well as more than 1,000 construction jobs. Since these next-generation reactors are still under development and must go through a permitting process, construction is not expected to begin until the end of the decade.
