MORE NUKES IS GOOD NUKES: Amazon goes nuclear, to invest more than $500 million to develop small modular reactors.

AWS announced it has signed an agreement with Dominion Energy, Virginia’s utility company, to explore the development of a small modular nuclear reactor, or SMR, near Dominion’s existing North Anna nuclear power station. Nuclear reactors produce no carbon emissions.

An SMR is an advanced type of nuclear reactor with a smaller footprint that allows it to be built closer to the grid. They also have faster construction times than traditional reactors, allowing them to come online sooner.

Amazon is the latest large tech company to buy into nuclear power to fuel the growing demands from data centers. Earlier this week, Google announced it will purchase power from SMR developer Kairos Power. Constellation Energy is restarting Three Mile Island to power Microsoft data centers.

I’m pleasantly surprised that the Chinese/Russians/Saudis (pick one or more!) don’t already have an astroturf environmental campaign in place to derail these nuclear plans.