New US Data Center to Run Entirely on Nuclear Power

Unlike Germany, many countries still rely on nuclear power – including the United States. One of the nation’s largest nuclear plants is set to supply 100 percent of the electricity for an Amazon Web Services data center planned in Pennsylvania.

The Key Points at a Glance

• Amazon acquires a 960-megawatt data center campus in Pennsylvania for $650 million from Talen Energy.
• Starting in 2024, AWS will source electricity from the 2.5-gigawatt Susquehanna nuclear power plant at fixed prices.
• Four substations, each with a capacity of 120 megawatts, are set to be completed by the end of 2024.
• AWS commits to increasing its annual power draw, eventually reaching a maximum of 480 megawatts.
• Talen Energy will continue operating the nuclear plant, the sixth-largest in the U.S.

Without naming the buyer, U.S. power plant operator Talen Energy announced in early March 2024 the sale of a “Zero-Carbon Data Center Campus” called Cumulus in northern Pennsylvania to a major cloud service provider. The facility boasts a capacity of 960 megawatts, and the buyer – Amazon, or more specifically Amazon Web Services (AWS) – paid $650 million for it.

The hyperscaler plans to bring four substations online by the end of the year, drawing 100 percent of their power from the nearby Susquehanna nuclear power plant (located on the eponymous river), which has a total capacity of 2.5 gigawatts. This move also aligns with AWS’s goal of reducing CO₂ emissions. Talen Energy will continue operating the nuclear plant, which converts steam into electricity and ranks as the sixth-largest in the U.S. Later this year, it is expected to supply 240 megawatts – equivalent to one substation’s capacity – to the AWS data center.

Nuclear Energy as a CO₂-Neutral Alternative

According to Talen Energy, Amazon will receive electricity at a fixed price. As reported by Futurezone, AWS has contractually committed to initially purchase a minimum amount of power, which will then increase annually in 120 MW increments. AWS has the option to cap its power purchase at 480 MW once and extend the contract by another ten years twice.

As Futurezone noted, Amazon is not the only company turning to nuclear power to reduce CO₂ emissions. Microsoft, for example, is reportedly working on developing a small modular reactor for its data centers. Following several reactor accidents, the U.S. has significantly scaled back its investment in new large-scale nuclear power plants. Today, construction efforts are increasingly focused on these smaller reactors, which many proponents see as the future of nuclear energy.

Critics, however, warn that smaller nuclear power plants may lead to even lower safety standards, not to mention the ongoing challenges of nuclear waste storage and disposal. That said, proponents argue that faster, smaller Generation IV reactors operate more cleanly and produce less high-level radioactive waste. In Germany, too, calls to reconsider nuclear power as an alternative – or even a supplement – to renewable energy sources are growing louder.

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