TMI Update: Jan 14, 2024


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Document Title:
Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 1 - Slides for October 25, 2024, Meeting on Crane Clean Energy Center Regulatory Path to Restoring the Operating Reactor License Basis
Document Type:
Slides and Viewgraphs
Document Date:
10/22/2024
 
Also,
Not sure which Constellation nuke looking for uprate - Closed Mtg
 
Document Title:
11/07/2024 Closed Meeting to Discuss Potential Power Uprate Amendment
Document Type:
Meeting Notice
Meeting Agenda
Document Date:
10/23/2024

 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission - News Release
No: 24-077 October 21, 2024
CONTACT: David McIntyre, 301-415-8200

NRC Reaches Agreement with Michigan Company Over Unlicensed Distribution of Tritium Products

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a confirmatory order to Glow Rhino LLC of Dearborn, Michigan, resolving apparent violations of NRC requirements for distribution of consumer products containing radioactive material.
 
Glow Rhino sells hunting knives and other gear, including some containing glow-in-the- dark capsules containing tritium. In April, the NRC notified the company that it had identified two apparent violations for distributing several unauthorized tritium products. The company accepted alternative dispute resolution, in which a third-party mediator facilitated an agreement between the agency and the company. That agreement is spelled out in the confirmatory order issued Oct. 16.
 
The NRC has now approved two of the tritium products, which Glow Rhino has resumed selling. Under the agreement, the company will return all other unapproved tritium products to their manufacturers or other companies licensed to possess tritium and take measures, including employee training, to ensure future compliance with NRC requirements. The NRC agreed to close its enforcement action without imposing a civil penalty.
 

Oct 16, 2024

by Darrell Proctor

The power generation sector is looking at numerous ways to provide enough electricity to satisfy demand from data centers. Bloomberg Intelligence recently said its research shows data centers, buildings filled with servers and other computing equipment for data storage and networking that supports operations and artificial intelligence (AI), could be responsible for as much as 17% of all U.S. electricity consumption by 2030. The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) has said one data center can require 50 times the electricity of a typical office building.

Several technology groups are looking at nuclear powerincluding the use of small modular reactors (SMRs), to meet their electricity needs. Energy analysts have said natural gas, whether burned in large-scale facilities or peaker plants, also will be important.

Power consumption from data centers, though, also is benefiting coal-fired power plants, some of which may be kept running longer than expected in order to meet the increased demand for electricity from companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and others. Some coal-fired plants already have gotten a reprieve in areas where more energy is needed as data centers come online, or are in the planning stages.

The topic reportedly was discussed when C-suite executives from Alphabet (Google), AWS, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, and OpenAI met with government officials in Washington, D.C., last month to discuss ways to support U.S. infrastructure for AI, including data centers. Part of the discussion was about repurposing old coal sites as data center campuses. The DOE has said it will share resources with data center developers about how to repurpose former coal mines, or coal-fired power plants, to be home to data centers. Energy DELTA Lab, a collaborative effort that includes Dominion Energy Virginia and Appalachian Power, already is working on the Data Center Ridge project at a former mining site in Wise County, Virginia.

Life Extension

Maksim Sonin, an energy expert who has collaborated with several companies, including Chevron and Shell, and is a Sloan Fellow at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, said, “Driven by recent trends in AI development, projected power consumption by data centers in the U.S. is expected to increase in the range from 8% to 17% by 2030—or potentially even higher, as progress in AI technologies is not linear but exponential, as seen in Silicon Valley today.” Sonin told POWER, “With this sharp upward trend, it is highly likely that coal-fired power plants will remain a part of the U.S. energy system for longer, although their role is expected to diminish,” as more renewable and other energy resources come online.

“Coal plants will have an extension of their life due to data center demand,” said Tim Echols, a commissioner and vice-chair of the Georgia Public Service Commission. Echols’ home state is actively recruiting data centers and manufacturing facilities to provide jobs and boost local economies. It already added a significant new source of power when two nuclear reactors entered service at Plant Vogtle last year and this year, providing about 2,200 MW of new electricity output in the state. Plant Vogtle, where two other reactors have operated since the 1980s, is now the nation’s largest nuclear power plant, with more than 4,600 MW of generation capacity.

Echols told POWER in an Oct. 16 interview that Georgia is preparing for a large increase in power demand. “There could be a massive increase of capacity approved next year. Data centers will account for most of it,” he said.

How to satisfy data center power demand is being discussed by utilities and energy officials nationwide. Allan Schurr, chief commercial officer with Texas-based Enchanted Rock, which provides microgrid backup power solutions to data centers and other critical infrastructure, said the debate also should include onsite generation.

“AI data centers require more generating capacity—that’s a given,” said Schurr. “While we are waiting for nuclear power to bring substantial additional baseload to the grid, we don’t want to needlessly ‘recarbonize’ our energy resources by extending the life of older, less-efficient fossil generation plants like coal.

Schurr told POWER, “Today’s grid has significant available capacity with the exception of about 500 hours per year that can be mitigated with dispatchable generation. And the grid needs those 500 hours of additional capacity so we can continue to add solar and wind resources into the energy mix. Data centers can facilitate this dispatchable generation from their own onsite generation, making them assets to the grid instead of liabilities.”

The utilities and grid operators arguing to keep coal-fired plants online say it makes sense to keep existing baseload power sources operating, at least until more nuclear or renewable energy is available. That’s why states including Nebraska, Virginia, and Utah among others, have plans to keep coal-fired units running to support the supply of electricity.

Virginia is World Data Center Leader

DC Byte, a UK-based research group that tracks data centers worldwide, has said the U.S. is the world leader in the buildout of data centers. The group said Virginia—home to about half of all U.S. data centers—is the largest data center market worldwide. Loudoun County in Virginia is known as “Data Center Alley.”

PJM Interconnection, the grid operator that serves Virginia, the District of Columbia, and 12 other states, has conceded some coal-fired power plants will need to continue operating, and miles of new transmission lines must be built, to satisfy ever-increasing demand for electricity. Other power sources will help—Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. on Tuesday announced it will partner with CEP Solar (based in Richmond, Virginia) to add 1.5 GW of solar and battery energy storage to support data center growth in the region.

“The system is in a major transition right now, and it’s going to continue to evolve,” Ken Seiler, PJM’s senior vice president in charge of planning, said in a December stakeholders’ meeting about how the grid operator can supply more power as it waits for more renewable energy resources to come online. “And we’ll look for opportunities to do everything we can to keep the lights on as it goes through this transition.”

DC Byte in its 2024 Global Data Center Index wrote, “Virginia currently has over 6 GW in the development pipeline including projects under active construction as well as Committed and Early Stage campuses.” The group noted, “Cloud is the greatest driver of growth in Virginia. AWS [Amazon Web Services] operates over 40 facilities in the state and Microsoft operates a massive campus in Boydton as well as a smaller facility in Loudoun County. Both companies have more self-build campuses in the pipeline and are also major colocation tenants across the market.”

DC Byte added, “In 2022, Loudoun County’s primary power supplier Dominion Energy announced that it would not be able to meet power demand in the market. Delays in power delivery are expected until 2025 or 2026 while new power infrastructure is built. In the meantime, Dominion Energy would be providing power incrementally.” Dominion officials have said they project that power demand in the utility’s territory will increase by 85% over the next 15 years.

The 1,100-MW Fort Martin Power Station is located in Maidsville, West Virginia, on the Monongahela River. It has two coal-fired units. It is owned by Monongahela Power (Mon Power), part of FirstEnergy Corp. Source: Mon PowerThe 1,100-MW Fort Martin Power Station is located in Maidsville, West Virginia, on the Monongahela River. It has two coal-fired units. It is owned by Monongahela Power (Mon Power), part of FirstEnergy Corp. Source: Mon Power

PJM is backing a $5.2 billion plan for new transmission lines across several states to bring power to Virginia. The lines would carry electricity produced at several coal-fired power plants that have been slated for closure, including the Longview, Fort Martin, and Harrison stations in West Virginia.

In Maryland, meanwhile, PJM has asked Texas-based Talen Energy Corp. to keep Brandon Shores and Herbert A. Wagner—two other coal-fired facilities located near Baltimore—online at least through 2028. The plants had been scheduled to close by June 2025.

Operating Extension for Omaha Coal Plant

The 644-MW North Omaha Station in Nebraska was scheduled to close in 2023. Instead, Google and Meta data centers caused the area’s power demand to spike, which led the Omaha Public Power District to decide that the two coal-fired units at North Omaha were needed to maintain reliability of the local power grid. The utility has said it will keep the coal-burning units online at least through 2026.

One Google data center is in Papillon, a town about 12 miles southwest of Omaha. DC Byte said the Google facility uses more power than the Meta office, and added that its data shows Google uses more electricity in Nebraska than it uses elsewhere in the U.S. The company also is planning more data centers in the state.

Data from Meta and other groups shows that the company’s data center in Sarpy County, about 25 miles southwest of Omaha, last year used almost as much power as the North Omaha station produced. The Meta campus includes nine separate complexes, encompassing about 4 million square feet.

The Omaha Public Power District has estimated that as much as two-thirds of the projected growth in power demand around Omaha will come from data centers, which are being built on what used to be farmland. Local officials have said opposition to wind and solar farms in rural areas has curtailed additional renewable energy resources that could supply power. The utility has been developing a 2,800-acre solar power project in rural York County, about 100 miles from Omaha, but area residents have voiced concerns about the installation. The utility also has said regulatory issues have slowed plans to replace coal-fired generation with natural gas-fired units.

Meta’s presence in Omaha was sought by state and local officials; a special electricity rate for industrial customers was created in 2017. That rate was then marketed to Google to entice the search engine giant to build in the area.

Georgia Courting Data Center Operators

Georgia Power is buying electricity from a sister company, Mississippi Power (both are part of Southern Co.), to help meet power demand in Georgia. The deal came after Georgia Power officials reportedly told state regulators that growing demand for electricity would overrun supply by year-end 2025. Georgia officials have been actively looking to bring data centers and manufacturing plants to that state, and Gov. Brian Kemp earlier this year vetoed a bill that would have suspended a tax break for data centers (the bill had bipartisan opposition). Had the bill become law, the tax break would have been under the review of a special commission on data center energy planning.

Kemp in a statement said, “The bill’s language would prevent the issuance of exemption certificates after an abrupt July 1, 2024 deadline for many customers of projects that are already in development—undermining the investments made by high-technology data center operators, customers, and other stakeholders in reliance on the recent extension, and inhibiting important infrastructure and job development.”

Georgia Power has a deal with Mississippi Power to buy 750 MW of electricity through 2028. Mississippi Power is providing the energy from its Victor J. Daniel Electric Generating Plant, better known as Plant Daniel, where two coal-fired units have operated for the past 50 years. The plant also has two natural gas combined-cycle units. It is the state’s largest power plant, with nearly 1.6 GW of generation capacity, including 500 MW from its two coal-fired units.

Mississippi Power had planned to retire the coal-burning steam turbines in 2027. The deal with Georgia Power, though, could extend that lifecycle. Jeffrey Grubb, the utility’s director of resource planning, reportedly was asked by Georgia Power’s lawyers about the agreement, and said, “Because those units would have been either retired or sold off-system and we needed certainty that they would be there to serve our customers.”

Echols, the PUC co-chair, on Wednesday told POWER the contract with Mississippi Power is open to any kind of generation source.

“Our contract with Mississippi Power calls for 750 MW, and it doesn’t matter where it comes from. That may mean an [operating] extension for the coal plant, or it may not,” he said. “Mississippi could do 750 MW of solar plus storage, they could bring in 750 MW of wind power from a neighboring state.”

Echols noted that a move by regulators in 2022 extended operations for two coal-fired units at Georgia Power’s Plant Bowen, one of the nation’s largest coal-burning power plants, with about 3.4 GW of generation capacity. Echols said, “In the 2022 IRP [integrated resource plan] … our commissioners delayed the closure of units 1 and 2 at Plant Bowen. I imagine as we evaluate that in next year’s IRP, we will also delay the closure for another three years. We’ll have to wait and see what the utility is asking for and how the commissioners feel we need to move forward.”

Echols told POWER, “There could be a massive increase of capacity approved next year. Data centers will account for most of it.” Echols also offered, “I think there is a scenario where we approve two more AP1000 [reactors] at Plant Vogtle if the federal government provides bankruptcy insurance or overrun insurance” for another expansion at the site.

Other Efforts

DC Byte has identified Salt Lake City, Utah, as a growing market for data centers. Meta already operates a 4.5-million-square foot complex in Eagle Mountain, Utah, south of Salt Lake City.

State lawmakers have pushed legislation to keep the Intermountain Power Project, a coal-fired station near Delta, Utah, open past the facility’s scheduled 2025 closure date. Officials have looked at ways to have the state take over the plant. Lawmakers this year did pass legislation intended to extend the life of Rocky Mountain Power’s coal-fired stations in Emery County.

Stuart Adams, president of the Utah Senate, during the legislative session this summer said, “The United States has a real problem. We do not have enough power for our data centers. AI development is technology that we have to embrace, and power is the key to it.”

Building more infrastructure to support that AI development was among the reasons those tech company execs met last month on Capitol Hill. Reports said the discussion included repurposing former coal sites to house data center campuses, in part because those sites usually have access to power lines, water, and a local workforce.

The DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Lab, which is leading the “coal-to-X” redevelopment campaign, in a guide to the program wrote, “A retired coal site could even be redeveloped to combine a data center with new clean energy on the same site.”

As Schurr of Enchanted Rock noted, generating onsite power via a microgrid, or through a renewable energy resource, could be preferable to using coal-fired generation. That’s of particular importance for data center operators looking to build in remote areas where they need plenty of land, and where there’s a lack of transmission infrastructure.

Sonin reiterated that coal will play a role in satisfying power demand from data centers, but like Schurr, noted other fuels could work with coal to reduce the environmental impact of keeping coal-fired power plants online.

Sonin told POWER, “Emerging technologies that, for instance, allow for substituting some of the coal with ammonia, a carbon-free hydrogen derivative, through a process known as co-firing, may help address public environmental concerns. Current advancements, particularly the potential for upscaling production trains, could reduce the cost of ammonia facilities by 30% and more, making this chemical a viable solution for cutting emissions from coal plants.”

Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER

 

Tim Judson

Executive Director

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 340

Takoma Park, MD  20912

Pronouns: he/him/his

O: 301-270-6477

E: timj@nirs.org

W: www.nirs.org

USA, Pennsylvania: Constellation Energy has ordered a main power transformer for the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania. The company is attempting to restart the reactor, pushing ahead with work critical to the plant’s revival.

The transformer will be the biggest single piece of equipment which will need to be replaced for restart of the plant, and it will cost about $100 million. The owner of the plant Constellation is investing $1.6 billion to revive the operation over the next four years.

When deciding whether to move forward with a restart, Constellation surveyed the site to determine the condition of essential infrastructure and equipment, much of which has sat idle since the plant shut in 2019. Constellation Vice President of Generation Bryan Hanson said that the plant is in great condition.

Constellation signed a 20-year power contract with Microsoft to help restart the plant. The nuclear reactor, located on an island in the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, could supply 835 MW of power to offset Microsoft’s data center electricity consumption.

No modern US nuclear power plant has been restarted after fully shutting down. Three Mile Island is known as the site of the worst nuclear power accident in US history, as in 1979, a unit experienced a partial meltdown which caused no deaths but released small amounts of radioactive gases and raised concerns about the potential health effects on surrounding communities. That unit will not be restarted.

Separate Unit 1, which Constellation wants to resurrect, shut in 2019 for economic reasons. Unit 1 could begin producing power in 2028, but there is a series of physical hurdles and US and local regulations that must be completed first. Among other investments in resuming operations at the plant are work on the reactor’s turbine, generator, and cooling systems.

Source: Reuters

Dear No Nuke Community,
 
Please show up this Friday 10/25 at 9:00am ET.  Registration required - Please share
The purpose for the meeting is for the Constellation Energy Generation, LLC to provide an overview of their plan to potentially restart Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 1, as well as to rename the facility to Crane Clean Energy Center. This is a Hybrid Meeting.
 
Teleconference:
Bridge Number Conference        ID Pass Code
(301) 576-2978                           759137601#
 
 
Meeting Number 
250 970 214 041
 
Password
6JBzJV
 
This meeting will be hybrid. Please register in advance of the meeting by clicking on the
provided link. This will take you to a new page where you will be asked to provide some
basic information, including an email address, so that the system can send you the
Microsoft Teams link for the meeting. We ask that you do this in advance (at least 30
minutes) to provide the system time to send the link before the meeting starts.
 

10/25/24
9:00AM -
11:00AM ET
 
 
Meeting info
The purpose for the meeting is for the Constellation Energy Generation, LLC
to provide an overview of their plan to potentially restart Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 1,
as well as to rename the facility to Crane Clean Energy Center. This is a Hybrid Meeting. [more...]

Participation: Observation

Teleconference
 
 
One White Flint
11555 Rockville Pike
O-8B4
Rockville MD
 
 
Justin Poole
(301) 415-2048

Ngola Otto
(301) 415-6695
 
 
N2
Michael J. Keegan
Don't Waste Michigan
 The site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history is poised to get a rebranding
  • Updated: Oct. 18, 2024, 5:11 a.m.
  • |Published: Oct. 18, 2024, 5:10 a.m.
 
Constellation Energy has reached an agreement with Microsoft to launch the Crane Clean Energy Center and restart Three Mile Island Unit 1 back to service and online producing electricity in 2028. October 16, 2024. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.comDan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com
 
By 
Some of the most recognizable U.S. companies have changed their names over the years for a variety of reasons:
Facebook changed to Meta to reflect its focus on creating a metaverse.
 
Campbell Soup Company switched to The Campbell’s Company to reflect its wider selection of products.
Dunkin’ Donuts went simply to Dunkin’ to modernize its brand.
 
Now Constellation Energy wants to change the name of Three Mile Island Nuclear Station.
 
After all, who wouldn’t want to bury the name attached to the worst nuclear disaster on American soil?
But Constellation’s chief generation officer Bryan Hanson denied that’s the reason the company wants to adopt a new name: Crane Clean Energy Center.
 
The company, which owns the shuttered nuclear plant, plans to bring the proposal before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for approval on Oct. 25, along with an overview of the plans to restart the nuclear reactor.
 
Three Mile Island Unit 1 to go online in 2028
 
“Crane” is a tribute to Chris Crane, the CEO of Constellation’s former parent company who died in April after distinguishing himself as a leader in nuclear energy.
 
“We’re recognizing a titan of the nuclear industry that established high standards for not only the U.S. but the world to operate these nuclear plants,” Hanson said.
 
“We’re dedicating this plant in his name because fundamentally we expect to do the same with this plant – restore it to as good as it was when we shut it down, to establish the high levels of reliability and standards that it operated to, and operate [it] for the next 20 plus years. That’s important to us.”
 
As for including “clean energy” in the proposed name, he said this plant will produce massive amounts of electricity without carbon emissions and at a level of reliability independent of the weather, the sun or pipelines.
 
“There’s no other industry that makes electricity that can account for every gram of waste and account for it both responsibly and financially like we do,” Hanson said. “We’re very confident in our ability to say clean energy.”
 
Nuclear energy watchdog Eric Epstein has a hard time accepting that rationale.
 
“What is ‘clean’ about radioactive waste? You can call TMI whatever you want, but the fact remains that it is a radioactive garbage dump,” he said. “The priority should be cleaning up Three Mile Island, rather than rebranding a nuclear waste site.”
 
Marketing expert Bo Bothe, president and CEO of BrandExtract of Houston, Texas, said he can’t blame Constellation for seeking a new name for the plant.
 
“This site has been branded as a failure for America and a danger for so long that you’ve got to overcome that somehow,” he said.
However, changing the name alone isn’t enough to change someone’s perception of the plant or any brand for that matter —that takes time and money, Bothe said.
 
Three Mile Island carries a lot of baggage with residents in central Pennsylvania, who are haunted by the trauma of the partial meltdown 45 years ago when 100,000 people were forced to flee.
 
Changing perceptions also requires working with the community, communication, safety assurances, and living up to its promises for the new brand to take hold, he said.
 
Constellation is seeking the NRC’s approval to bring Unit 1 back online by 2028, that would be nine years after the plant was shut down amid financial woes. Microsoft entered into a 20-year agreement with Constellation to buy all the zero-emission energy the plant produces to help meet the tech company’s pledge of becoming carbon negative by 2030.
 
Bothe said given Microsoft’s carbon reduction pledge, it’s understandable Constellation wants clean energy in the name. Naming the plant after a person known for helping to shape the nuclear energy also is understandable.
 
But he added, “The challenge is this site has already been branded and how do you change that perception. It’s pretty risky for Microsoft to have an association there because if there is a failure, it really will affect Microsoft’s brand. Hopefully, they’ve taken all that into account and not just think oh, this would be cheaper to redo a plant” than build new.
 
Hanson said Constellation’s request to change the plant’s name isn’t an effort to erase the plant’s history.
 
Rather, he said, “I’m hoping to move past it and recognize it for what it was and what it did for the industry to create such high level performance across not only our nation but the world. If you think about where nuclear has come from since that accident in ’79, no one can argue that we haven’t learned the lessons, that we have better operator training, that we have better reliability, better oversight, the whole soup to nuts.
 
“Nuclear is in a much stronger position than in ’79.”
 
THREE MILE ISLAND RESTART
SUBJECT:  Notice of Meeting with Constellation Energy Generation, LLC
 
ADAMS Accession No. ML24289A126
 Using Web-based ADAMS, select “Advanced Search”
Under “Property,” select “Accession Number”
Under “Value,” enter the Accession Number
Click Search

Amazon and Energy Northwest announce plans to develop advanced nuclear technology in Washington

10/16/2024
News Release
 

RICHLAND, Wash. – Amazon (Nasdaq; AMZN) and Energy Northwest, a public power agency leading in the development of next-generation nuclear technologies, today announced an agreement to fund efforts to move toward development and deployment of small modular reactor (SMR) technology in Washington state to advance reliable energy across the Northwest.

As the demand for energy resources continue to rise, Energy Northwest and Amazon recognize the urgent need to develop advanced technologies in the Pacific Northwest that provide reliable, carbon-free and sustainable energy generation. SMRs offer a promising solution to that need through scalable and flexible energy output.

Through the agreement, Amazon will fund the initial feasibility phase of an SMR project, which is planned to be sited near Energy Northwest's Columbia Generating Station nuclear energy facility in Richland, Washington.

“As a member of Washington's business community, Amazon is committed to investing in new nuclear energy technologies that can help power our operations and provide net-new, safe sources of carbon-free energy to the grid," said Kevin Miller, Amazon's Vice President of Global Data Centers. “We're proud to be working with Energy Northwest, a utility company that's also thinking big about meeting society's growing energy demands while addressing climate change. This new SMR project is a significant step toward Amazon's Climate Pledge commitment to reach net-zero carbon across our operations by 2040, and signifies our continued dedication to becoming a more sustainable company."

“We are excited about this collaboration with Amazon and are impressed with their vision for helping develop new nuclear technologies and their desire to also make this resource available to utilities in the future," said Greg Cullen, Vice President for Energy Services & Development at Energy Northwest. “We've been working for years to develop this project at the urging of our members, and have found that taking this first, bold step is difficult for utilities, especially those that provide electricity to ratepayers at the cost of production. We applaud Amazon for being willing to use their financial strength, need for power and know-how to lead the way to a reliable, carbon-free power future for the region."

The SMRs will be the Xe-100 design, a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor developed by X-energy, a global leader in advanced nuclear reactor and fuel technology. Each Xe-100 module can provide 80 megawatts of full-time electricity. Energy Northwest and X-energy have engaged extensively on plans for an Xe-100 facility since 2020.
Under the agreement, Amazon will have the right to purchase electricity from the first project (four modules), which is expected to generate 320 megawatts (MW) of energy capacity. Energy Northwest has the option to further build out the site by adding up to eight additional modules (640 MWs) resulting in a total project generating capacity of up to 960 MWs. This additional power will be available to Amazon and northwest utilities to power homes and businesses.

As the owner and operator of Columbia Generating Station, the Pacifi​c Northwest's only nuclear generating facility, and as a developer and operator of additional clean energy and storage resources, Energy Northwest is well-equipped to develop this project.

This collaboration between Energy Northwest and Amazon demonstrates the power of public-private partnerships in driving innovation and accelerating the progression of sustainable energy solutions. It also paves the way for public power entities to develop and build future SMRs to help meet the region's growing energy demands.

Amazon press release

X-energy press release 

Media Kit 
 
Additional Attributable Quotes

"One of the greatest concerns for community-owned electric utilities is having access to reliable sources of electricity that fulfill carbon-free energy mandates. Advanced nuclear fits the bill. This bold partnership between Energy Northwest and Amazon will help pave the way for additional nuclear development in our region and represents a critical step toward achieving a clean and dependable electric grid."
-Kurt Miller, Executive Director, Northwest Public Power Association
---------

“It is essential that American energy, American technology and American innovation continues to set the standard for the rest of the world. Our community is poised to become the center of that innovation, for everything from information, energy and agricultural technologies. These opportunities will positively shape the future of our nation, our state and our families' lives. 

However, without the electricity to attract industry and grow our communities, our collective goals will never be realized. Investments like these, where end-users, government and industry step up to the plate and help build the critical infrastructure that will propel us all into the future is an investment that cannot be understated. 

The Central Washington Building Trades Unions have worked tirelessly to grow and train the skilled workforce of the next generation. The future of our community will be built by talented Building Trades Union members and their families that live here.

The way I see it we must have two things, the people to build the future and the energy to power it. The Central Washington Building Trades is committed to supply the next generation of skilled crafts to build the future and this investment represents an important commitment to power it."
-Nickolas A. Bumpaous, President Central Washington Building Trades and Business Manager for UA Plumbers & Steamfitters Local Union 598
---------

“The Pacific Northwest region will need a remarkable amount of electricity to meet a projected increase in demand due to data center development, high-tech manufacturing growth and the continued trend toward electrification. At the same time, the region is on a path to reducing carbon emissions to address the disastrous effects of climate change. The path must include many solutions, like dependable generation that can back-up variable wind and solar power resources to assure an adequate, reliable power supply. Energy Northwest's pro-active decision making and partnership with Amazon makes substantial progress toward modernizing and decarbonizing the region's power system."
-Crystal Ball, Executive Director Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee
---------

"Amazon's announced investment in small modular reactors gives me hope for the future of the Northwest power grid. Under 100% non-emitting electricity requirements, nuclear power is the only technology capable of reliably delivering the massive amounts of around-the-clock energy our society needs, while also positioning utilities to meet aggressive electrification goals. I am ecstatic and deeply grateful to Amazon for their bold and visionary leadership."
-Rick Dunn, General Manager, Benton Public Utility District

Media contacts:

Energy Northwest:

Kelly Rae

Corporate Communications

klrae@energy-northwest.com

 

Amazon:

Erika Reynoso

Corporate Communications

ermreyno@amazon.com
 

About Energy Northwest       
Energy Northwest is a Washington state public power joint operating agency and a premier provider of carbon-free electricity. Energy Northwest comprises 29 public power member utilities, serving more than 1.5 million customers, and provides its members and regional customers with safe, reliable, cost-effective, responsible power generation and innovative energy and business solutions. The agency owns and operates hydroelectric, solar, battery storage, wind and the Northwest's only nuclear power facility. Energy Northwest also actively supports transportation electrification and new generation projects to the benefit of public power. www.energy-northwest.com.        

About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth's Best Employer, and Earth's Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.​

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