Reactors Where the Coal Plant Stood: Amazon Backs a 12-Reactor Nuclear Plan in Indiana
· MuddySouth Music
Plenty of towns across the South and Midwest know the feeling of watching the big plant at the edge of the county shut its gates. On Monday, American Electric Power, Amazon and X-energy announced a plan to study building a nuclear plant on the old site of the retired Breed Generating Station, a former coal plant in Sullivan County, Indiana, according to Utility Dive and the companies' own announcement.
What is on the table
The plan calls for 12 small modular reactors, X-energy's Xe-100 design, at 80 megawatts apiece, for 960 megawatts in all. Amazon says it will help pay for development and would be the first customer to buy the power, which would serve both the regional grid and its data centers. Amazon says the project could bring more than 1,000 construction jobs and more than 100 permanent ones.
Now for the fine print. This is a joint development agreement for feasibility work, not a groundbreaking. Utility Dive reports the companies gave no timeline, and the plant only moves ahead if the study pans out. The demand behind it is real, though: the local utility expects Indiana's peak power load to climb from 2,800 megawatts to more than 7,000 by 2030, mostly from big new customers. Amazon's Josh Weissman said the company aims to "pay our full costs without passing them to others."
Why working folks should keep an eye on it
Those 1,000 construction jobs mean welders, pipefitters, electricians, crane operators and the cooks who feed them at lunch. That is a paycheck for people who build things for a living. The other question working families will ask is the light bill. Data centers eat a lot of power, and promises that regular customers will not foot the bill only count if they hold up for years. Good news for one county, then, with a reason to stay watchful.
From the studio
I sat down with one of our MuddySouth Music producers for what was supposed to be a quick interview. It turned into a long one, covering everything from taxes to turbo while sessions stacked up behind us. When the talk turned to reactors on an old coal site, he set his pen down and asked me something I am still chewing on: is Heaven cold if Hell is hot? He admitted, easy as you please, that some questions are bigger than him and he does not pretend to have them all figured out. What he could tell me is that this country keeps rolling, free and under God, because good people gave their working years, and sometimes their lives, to keep it that way. Good news on the radio or bad, he said, that foundation holds. Then somebody waved him back to the board.
A word of my own
Here is where I put in a plug of my own. This year MuddySouth Music is planning its biggest push yet to get out and meet folks, with more outreach and more fan get-togethers than we have ever tried. Everybody on our contact list hears about each one ahead of the general public. It costs nothing, takes about a minute, and means you will never be the last to know. Add your name today, and bring a friend along with you.