(Finance) – Amazonan American e-commerce giant, has signed three agreements to support the development of nuclear energy projectsincluding enabling the construction of several new small modular reactors (SMR). SMRs are an advanced type of nuclear reactor with a smaller physical footprint, allowing them to be built closer to the grid, it is explained. Additionally, they have faster construction times than traditional reactors, allowing them to come online sooner.
“Nuclear is a secure source of carbon-free energy that can help power our operations and meet the growing demands of our customers, while helping us progress towards our Climate Pledge commitment to achieve net-zero emissions in all our operations by 2040 -he said Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS) – One of the fastest ways to address climate change is to transition our society to carbon-free energy sources, and nuclear power is both carbon-free and scale-able, reason why it is an important area of investment for Amazon“.
TO Washingtonthe agreement with Energy Northwest, a consortium of state utilities, will enable the development of four advanced SMRs. The reactors will be built, owned and operated by Energy Northwest.
Amazon is also investing in X-energy, a leading developer of next-generation SMR reactors and fuel, and X-energy’s advanced nuclear reactor design will be used in the Energy Northwest project.
In Virginiasigned an agreement with Dominion Energy to explore the development of an SMR project near Dominion’s existing North Anna nuclear power plant.