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Amazon’s push for small modular nuclear reactors is just the latest development in decadeslong fight over nuclear energy
Caution signs warn of radioactive materials at the Tank-Side Cesium Removal System process enclosure outside AP Tank Farm on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, Sept. 24, 2024. Amazon announced in October that it plans to build nuclear reactors in southeast Washington that would power its data centers in Umatilla and Morrow counties, but many tribes and environmentalists are against it.
Courtesy Annie Warren/NWPB / OPB
Chuck Johnson was 25 years old when he helped bring Oregon’s nuclear energy industry to a sudden halt.
Fresh out of college, Johnson helped lead signature gathering and field organizing to pass Ballot Measure 7, which banned all new nuclear power plants in the state until the U.S. had a federally licensed permanent disposal facility. When Oregon’s only nuclear energy facility was closed in 1992, the measure effectively ensured that nothing would take its place unless major changes happened.
For decades those changes seemed unlikely, but a new push by the power-hungry tech industry has reignited interest in nuclear energy in the region.
Amazon announced in October that it is partnering with Energy Northwest to develop and build nuclear reactors in southeast Washington that would power its data centers in Umatilla and Morrow counties. Amazon would work with its partners to develop and roll out a novel technology – small modular nuclear reactors – without brushing up against the limits of Measure 7 because the reactors would be north of the Columbia River.
For Amazon, SMRs would allow the tech and e-commerce giant to harness the immense, low-carbon power potential of nuclear energy while staying true to its climate goals, and avoiding the safety and environmental concerns that have plagued traditional reactors. More than 40 years after passing Measure 7, Johnson isn’t convinced.
“If you can’t get rid of the waste produced by these plants, it’s irresponsible for us to – for the sake of some electricity right now – leave this legacy to future generations,” he said.
Johnson is a part of a group of environmentalists, academics and American Indian tribes who are gathering force against a nuclear energy revival in the Northwest.
Nuclear energy opponents argue that SMRs are simply a new coat of paint on the industry’s old problems. Like traditional reactors, they say that SMRs aren’t economically feasible and risk exposing people to nuclear radiation in a region still recovering from its World War II legacy.
The X-energy command room in Rockville, Md. Amazon plans to use X-energy's nuclear reactor design to power its Eastern Oregon data centers.
Photo courtesy of X-energy / Photo courtesy of X-energy
‘It’s for their profit’
M.V. Ramana’s argument against SMRs is economic as much as it is scientific.
A professor in the School of Public Affairs and Global Policy at the University of British Columbia, Ramana said the global share of electricity generated from nuclear reactors has been shrinking for decades, mainly due to the cost of building them.
Ramana pointed to the U.S.’s newest nuclear reactor project as an example. A nuclear reactor expansion at Plant Vogtle in Georgia went billions of dollars over budget before its first reactor went online in 2023.
Proponents say SMRs could solve the cost problem. At about one-tenth the size of a traditional reactor, SMR parts could be manufactured offsite, a process expected to save considerable money. While SMRs might sacrifice total capacity, their output is anticipated to far exceed other forms of low-carbon energy like solar and wind.
Ramana is skeptical of this argument, too. He said traditional reactors rely on an economy of scale: Their large size carries a great expense but it also means more energy to generate and sell. While an SMR might be one-tenth the size of a traditional reactor, Ramana said not all the costs of running and operating it are going to shrink by the same margin. SMR developers have also yet to realize decreased construction costs, Ramana said. He referenced NuScale, a Portland company whose SMR project in Idaho ballooned its cost 75% to $9.3 billion before it was canceled.
Amazon and other tech companies are backing nuclear as they promote technologies reliant on artificial intelligence because the hardware used to compute that data has extensive energy needs. The International Energy Agency projects data center energy consumption to double from 2022 to 2026. But optimistic timelines for the completion of the Amazon SMRs in Washington estimates they wouldn’t be built for at least seven years. Ramana said that’s enough time for the data demand bubble to burst.
“They need the power right now, because right now is when the market is hot,” he said. “There is no guarantee that in 10 years the market is going to be hot and they will need all this power.”
In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson said it won’t abandon its other green energy efforts as it pursues nuclear projects.
“We will continue to invest in new sources of solar, wind, and energy storage, alongside nuclear facilities … Expanding our energy investment strategy to include other forms of carbon-free energy, including nuclear, is the most viable option to bring new sources of carbon-free energy online quickly enough to help bridge this gap,” the company said in a written statement.
If Amazon and other tech companies were truly interested in protecting the world from climate change, Ramana said, they would take steps to reduce their data businesses rather than growing its energy usage.
“It’s for their profit,” he said. “It is not for the environmental good that they are doing it.”
The Hanford Site pictured in 2021. Amazon announced in October that it plans to build nuclear reactors in southeast Washington that would power its data centers in Umatilla and Morrow counties, but many tribes and environmentalists are against it.
ANNA KING/NW NEWS NETWORK
Hanford’s legacy
Columbia Riverkeeper staff attorney Simone Anter describes Hanford Reach as an idyllic spot, the last undammed, free-flowing part of the Columbia River and an important spawning grounds for Chinook salmon.
It’s also near the most nuclear waste-polluted area in the Western Hemisphere.
During World War II and the Cold War, the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington was the top producer of weapons-grade plutonium in the U.S. While Hanford stopped producing plutonium in the 1980s, the site left behind hundreds of billions of gallons of nuclear waste in underground storage tanks that leached into the soil.
Anter said Columbia Riverkeeper was formed when two groups worried about nuclear pollution in the Columbia merged.
“A lot of our work centers around this idea that Hanford is not a nuclear waste dumping ground, it is a place that has a future that people want to use and will use,” she said.
Building new nuclear reactors would be a literal barrier to clean-up efforts as new buildings could cover contaminated areas, Anter said. Columbia Riverkeeper is also concerned that SMRs could mean further nuclear pollution in the event of a meltdown.
SMR backers say that the size and technology of these reactors significantly reduces the risk of a meltdown. But even if the reactors avoid meltdowns, Ramana said they would still generate waste that will take hundreds or even thousands of years to decay.
The Nixyaawii Governance Center in Mission, Ore., on April 30, 2024, located in Umatilla County. Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation has ceded land at Hanford and has opposed SMRs for years.
Antonio Sierra / OPB
The tribes respond
Indigenous tribes often bear the brunt of the nuclear energy industry’s follies.
In the Pacific Northwest, the Yakama Nation has religious sites at Hanford and is directly involved in clean-up efforts. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation also has ceded land at Hanford and has opposed SMRs for years. They reiterated their opposition in a December statement, writing that they were against any “expansion of nuclear energy” unless developers sought permission through the CTUIR government.
Amazon has spent several years building a relationship with the CTUIR, including the establishment of an educational lab on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in 2022. But the tribes are concerned about how SMRs would affect water quality, fish and game habitat and plant life, all integral parts of the tribes’ First Foods.
Early signs also point to nuclear energy becoming a hot topic at the upcoming legislative session in Salem. State Rep. Bobby Levy, R-Echo, has already said she will sponsor a bill that would authorize an SMR pilot program in Umatilla County. A legislative committee also received a presentation on SMRs from nuclear energy officials in December.
It’s a fight Johnson, who helped curtail the nuclear energy industry by leading the effort to pass Measure 7 in 1980, hasn’t let go.
In the years that followed the measure’s passage, he worked as a fundraiser for Portland State University and Western Oregon University, but Johnson re-engaged with the nuclear issue following the 2011 nuclear power plant meltdown in Fukushima, Japan.
He steered his career track back toward nuclear opposition, becoming a program manager for the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, first moving to Boston and then Switzerland to lead the organization’s Geneva office.
Johnson intends to retire later this year and return to Oregon, where he plans to remain active in opposing nuclear energy. He sees the sudden push for SMRs as an act of hubris from the country’s “tech bros,” an unearned confidence that they could unlock the potential of nuclear energy where previous generations have failed. Given the long, uncertain timeline for SMRs, Johnson thinks it’s just a ploy for tech companies to consume however much energy they want, whether it’s low carbon or not.
“I think it’s cynical,” he said. “They’re basically saying, ‘We got a promise to be carbon free, and fortunately for us, it’s something that’s going to take a while to do.’”
Also, on 05/14/2014, California Energy Commission protested the exemptions and California Energy Commission (CEC) Chair Robert Weisenmiller responded with a strong letter of opposition urging denial of the application.
DEP Citizens Advisory Council Meets January 14 On Data Centers, Three Mile Island Unit 2 Nuclear Plant Decommissioning, Abandoned Mine Land Reforestation
SUBJECT: HOPE CREEK GENERATING STATION, SALEM GENERATING STATION, UNITS 1 AND 2, AND PEACH BOTTOM ATOMIC POWER STATION, UNITS 2 AND 3 - EXEMPTIONS FROM THE REQUIREMENTS OF TITLE 10 OF THE CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS, PART 50, SECTIONS 50.82(a)(8)(1)(A) AND 50.75(h)(1)(iv) (EPID L-2024-LLE-0018)
Subject: Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 1 – Acceptance of Requested Licensing Action Re: Request for Exemption from 10 CFR 50.82(A)(2) to Support Reauthorization of Power Operations (EPID L-2024-LLE-0031)
Talen Energy on Dec. 23 said it intends to pursue appellate remedies after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said that it would not immediately address a Talen Energy request for rehearing of a Commission order that rejected an amended Interconnection Service Agreement among PJM, Susquehanna Nuclear LLC and PPL Electric Utilities tied to a data center in Pennsylvania.
The original press release (here) has a full 3 paragraphs of disclaimer (!) about the meaningless nature of "Forward-Looking Statements.”
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes statements that express Oklo’s opinions, expectations, objectives, beliefs, plans, intentions, strategies, assumptions, forecasts or projections regarding future events or future results and therefore are, or may be deemed to be, “forward-looking statements.” The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intends,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology, and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not historical facts. They appear in a number of places throughout this press release and include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, the timing, goals and benefits of the Master Agreement, results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the markets in which Oklo operates. Such forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties.
As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, the actual results or performance of Oklo may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. The following important risk factors could affect Oklo’s future results and cause those results or other outcomes to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements: risks related to the deployment of Oklo’s powerhouses; the risk that Oklo is pursuing an emerging market, with no commercial project operating, regulatory uncertainties; the potential need for financing to construct plants, market, financial, political and legal conditions; the effects of competition; changes in applicable laws or regulations; the risk that the Master Agreement fails to produce the expected benefits; and the outcome of any government and regulatory proceedings and investigations and inquiries.
The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties of the other documents filed by Oklo from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release and in any document incorporated by reference are based on current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on Oklo. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting Oklo will be those that Oklo has anticipated. Oklo undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.
On Dec 30, 2024, at 6:24 PM, Sara Barczak wrote:
Thanks to Tom Corlett for his original post. Very long article with lots of info (and hype per usual), but worth a full read. HALEU mentioned as well, the ADVANCE Act, and more...
Advanced nuclear firm Oklo has partnered with Switch, a Las Vegas-based data center designer, builder, and operator, to deploy 12 GW of Aurora powerhouses through 2044 in a historic deal hailed as “one of the largest corporate clean power agreements ever signed.”
The two companies announced a groundbreaking Master Power Agreement on Dec. 18 to establish a framework for the collaboration. Under its terms, Oklo is set to develop, build, and operate powerhouses across the U.S. through a series of power purchase agreements (PPAs). While non-binding at this stage, the agreement envisions that individual binding agreements “will be finalized as project milestones are reached,” Oklo said.
A Historic 12 GW Deal For Nuclear
The deal marks yet another stunning milestone in the tech sector’s rapid shift toward clean energy. As POWER has reported, the tech industry is on a mission to secure reliable, round-the-clock power to fuel its rapidly growing operations while fulfilling ambitious sustainability goals. While data centers consumed 150 TWh of electricity in the U.S. and 340 TWh globally in 2023, projections indicate a dramatic surge by 2030, albeit at varying rates. However, the quest is compounded by urgency and the limited capacity of utilities to accommodate soaring demand. A recent EPRI survey suggests that the power industry is already grappling with the challenge of integrating large new loads from data centers.
Most corporate power agreements have so far prioritized renewables. In May, Microsoft secured a global renewable energy framework with asset manager Brookfield, targeting the development of over 10.5 GW of new renewable energy capacity by 2030. That agreement, which—before the Oklo-Switch deal—was nearly eight times larger than the largest single corporate PPA ever signed, seeks to decarbonize Microsoft’s cloud operations through a mix of wind, solar, and emerging carbon-free energy technologies.
Interest in advanced nuclear power as a potential future resource to power artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and data centers has surged significantly over the past few months, cemented by a series of groundbreaking commitments between the two sectors. Tech giants cite an assortment of drivers for the preference, even though advanced nuclear remains in developmental stages. For companies like Google, advanced nuclear promises to allay the dual pressures of surging energy demands and decarbonization goals, but it also offers scalability with modular designs and simplified construction, smaller footprints, and inherent safety features. The approach could reduce timelines, increase flexibility in deployment locations, and improve the predictability of project delivery.
In September 2024, Microsoft and Constellation Energy committed $1.6 billion to restart the Unit 1 reactor of the shuttered Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania by 2028, now known as the Crane Clean Energy Center. Then, in October, Google signed a Master Plant Development Agreement to facilitate the development of a 500-MW fleet of Kairos Power molten salt nuclear reactors by 2035 to power Google’s data centers.
That same week, Amazon said it would back the deployment of 5 GW of new X-energy small modular reactors projects, starting with an initial four-unit 320-MWe Xe-100 plant with regional utility Energy Northwest in central Washington. It also signed an agreement with Dominion Energy to explore a 300-MW SMR near Virginia’s North Anna Power Station to fulfill soaring power needs projected from Northern Virginia’s so-called “Data Center Alley,” which is already the world’s largest data center market.
Earlier this month, Meta announced plans to release a request for proposals (RFP) targeting 1 GW to 4 GW of new nuclear generation capacity in the U.S. by the early 2030s. “We believe working with partners who will ultimately permit, design, engineer, finance, construct, and operate these power plants will ensure the long-term thinking necessary to accelerate nuclear technology,” the company said.
Switch, a prominent data center developer founded in 2000 by CEO Rob Roy, operates several large-scale data center campuses across the U.S., including in Nevada, Michigan, and Georgia. The company, which specializes in cutting-edge, energy-efficient data center design, says it has powered its operations with 100% renewable energy since 2016, consuming nearly 1 TWh annually.
“The relationship with Oklo underscores our commitment to deploying advanced nuclear power at a transformative scale for our data centers, further enhancing our offerings of one of the world’s most advanced data center infrastructures to current and future Switch clients,” said Switch Founder and CEO Roy on Wednesday.“By utilizing Oklo’s powerhouses, we aim to ensure that Switch remains the leader in data center sustainability while supporting our vision of energy abundance.”
A Giant New Prospect for Oklo
For Oklo, the deal marks a monumental opportunity to solidify its leadership in the burgeoning advanced nuclear landscape. While the company continues to mature its liquid metal-cooled fast nuclear reactor technology—with intent to begin operation of the first powerhouse in Idaho in 2027—it is notably pursuing a “full value chain” approach. A key facet involves managing the design, build, and operation of smaller reactors through PPAs—essentially allowing Oklo to maintain greater control over costs and risk management.
“This Master Agreement highlights Oklo’s business model of simplifying clean energy access by selling power, not power plants,” the company said. “It offers customers a direct, flexible pathway to clean, reliable, and affordable advanced nuclear energy.”
Oklo’s Aurora Powerhouse is a vertically oriented compact passive fast-spectrum reactor derived from the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) that uses liquid metal as a coolant. The company recently uprated its design’s capacity offerings to 15 MWe and 100 MWe. The compact fast reactor uses a high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) metallic uranium-zirconium fuel enriched to about 19%. Courtesy: Oklo
Oklo says it already currently holds a customer pipeline of 2.1 GW, bolstered by a series of agreements across diverse sectors. Past partnerships include a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to supply electricity from its planned Aurora powerhouses in Southern Ohio and a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) with Diamondback Energy to provide 50 MW over a 20-year PPA for operations in the Permian Basin. Oklo was also selected by the Defense Logistics Agency Energy to site a microreactor at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, pending final procedural adjustments.
Under recent deals, Oklo has partnered with Equinix through a $25 million pre-payment for a 20-year PPA to deliver up to 500 MW of clean energy for its data centers. The company also has a non-binding LOI with Prometheus Hyperscale to supply 100 MW for a cutting-edge data center campus over two decades. In November, meanwhile, the company said it signed LOIs with two (unnamed) major data center providers for up to 750 MW.
Its new 12-GW multi-decade partnership with Switch represents a transformative leap—and distinctively dwarfs previous deals—in terms of potential market impact. “This enduring relationship over several decades will help accelerate Oklo’s early powerhouse deployments and also position the Company to scale in response to a growing demand pipeline,” Oklo noted on Wednesday. “This Master Agreement enables Oklo to leverage Switch’s best-in-class execution while developing the financial and infrastructure model for scaling advanced nuclear.”
Scaling Up: Overcoming Fuel and Licensing Hurdles
Still, like others in the advanced nuclear industry, Oklo still faces challenges before it can scale its technology to meet growing energy demands. Its hurdles hover over two key issues—fuel and licensing.
Aurora powerhouses will require high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU), a material with a limited commercial supply chain in the U.S. To fuel its first 15-MWe commercial plant, slated to deploy in 2027 at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), it is developing the Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility (AFFF), a facility collocated at INL, that will fabricate fuel using HALEU awarded through a cooperative agreement with INL. The facility in October garnered the DOE’s approval of its Conceptual Safety Design Report (CSDR). And while Oklo already also has a partnership with Centrus Energy, which is demonstrating HALEU production, its future plans involve building a commercial-scale fuel recycling facility.
“We are uniquely positioned here since only fast reactors can take recycled fuel and fresh HALEU,” Oklo recently told POWER. “The scalability of advanced fuel recycling is central to our strategy. We recently completed the first end-to-end demonstration of the key stages of our advanced fuel recycling process in collaboration with Argonne and INL. This success represents a critical step toward scaling our recycling capabilities and deploying a commercial facility capable of increasing advanced reactor fuel supplies. Our approach not only enhances fuel cost effectiveness but also contributes to long-term sustainability by diversifying fuel sources,” it said.
On the licensing front, Oklo has notably championed regulatory movement. It submitted the first-ever combined license application (COLA) to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for an advanced non-light water reactor (LWR) in March 2020 (for its 15-MWe INL facility). Though the NRC denied that application in January 2022, the company has continued its extensive engagement with NRC staff. It expects to submit a new COLA—“a model for future applications” to the NRC in 2025. Subsequent COLAs could follow soon, in late 2025 and early 2026.
This time around, the company may have the benefit of the 2024 ADVANCE Act, which introduces key provisions that could expedite the process, including fee reductions—potentially cutting Oklo’s hourly licensing costs by more than 50%—and faster NRC reviews for reactors with unique safety features, like Oklo’s design. In addition, the company is “well-positioned to receive regulatory awards [outlined in the ADVANCE ACT] that would make licensing early plants essentially free,” it has noted.
According to Jacob DeWitte, co-founder and CEO of Oklo, the company’s historic agreement with Switch only adds more impetus to its prospects. “Rob Roy and the Switch team share the vision we have for nuclear energy’s role in powering artificial intelligence and providing the world with energy abundance,” he noted on Wednesday. Oklo, he said, expects “to benefit enormously from Switch’s record of turning visions into reality.”
The agreement’s multi-decade timeline provides a unique opportunity for Oklo to refine and expand its offerings over time, he noted. “The lifespan of this Master Agreement will allow us to iterate and evolve with Switch, from development to deployment to scaling. We believe that working with Switch will not only accelerate our early powerhouses but also accelerate our ability to scale by demonstrating customer demand for decades to come.”
NRC Statement on Passing of Former President Carter
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission mourns the loss of Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States. President Carter exemplified a lifelong commitment to public service, innovation and safety and made extraordinary contributions to the nuclear community.
“President Carter’s legacy in the nuclear field serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of accountability, transparency and innovation in the safe use of nuclear technology,” said NRC Chair Christopher T. Hanson. “His work helped lay the foundation for the robust, effective regulatory framework we continue to uphold.”
President Carter’s leadership during the 1979 Three Mile Island accident remains a defining moment in NRC history. His selection of the NRC’s Harold Denton as the President’s personal representative provided stability during the worst of the event. President Carter’s leadership led to significant advancements in NRC regulatory oversight and safety protocols, many of which remain central to the agency’s mission today.
President Carter also oversaw a pivotal NRC reorganization that streamlined its operations and clarified the roles and authorities (particularly during emergencies) of the Chair, Commission and Executive Director for Operations. The changes enhanced the safety of nuclear power plants and other uses of nuclear materials.
For more information about the history and mission of the NRC, visit www.nrc.gov.
Subject: Braidwood, Byron, Calvert Cliffs, FitzPatrick, LaSalle, Limerick, Nine Mile, Peach Bottom - Summary of November 7, 2024, Meeting with Constellation Energy Generation on Planned Alternative Requests Regarding Reactor Vessel Closure Studs (L-2024-LRM-0114)
Oklo’s 