AEP, Amazon and X-energy planning 12-SMR plant

American Electric Power, Amazon and X-energy have signed a joint development agreement to explore a 960 MW small modular reactor (SMR) project at a former coal plant site in Sullivan County, Indiana. The proposal would deploy twelve Xe-100 reactors, each 80 MW, arranged in three groups of four. Amazon has committed to a long-term power purchase agreement covering the facility's capital and operating costs, and the site has been designated part of Indiana's Advanced Nuclear Ready Communities Program. The project is expected to create roughly 1,000 construction jobs and 100 permanent positions.

Where this fits

This is a live data point on the firm-power alternative to a renewables-only grid. SMRs are dispatchable, weather-independent generation with the lowest lifecycle emissions of any power source. The deal hinges on an industrial anchor tenant, Amazon, willing to underwrite the full cost without passing it to ratepayers. That model sidesteps the cost-shifting problem that plagues renewables: solar and wind require system-wide subsidies (transmission overbuild, gas backup, storage) that are invisible in the headline megawatt-hour price but paid by the broader grid. Here, one customer funds one asset and takes the risk.

What it means

For Australia, this signals the global direction: data centres, heavy industry and utilities are choosing firm nuclear when they can. Australia has banned SMRs by law, foreclosing this pathway while China dominates the solar, battery and inverter supply chain that the renewables transition depends on. A grid built on imported weather-dependent generation and Chinese-sourced components is strategically vulnerable. The Indiana project shows what energy sovereignty and grid resilience can look like; Australia is moving the opposite direction.