Amazon offers $334M for nuclear reactors to be built at Hanford

The latest attempt to put Washington at the center of nuclear power development is happening at the site of the state's last effort, which mostly failed almost 40 years ago. And one of the state's biggest users of electric power will have a hand in its development.

"We're building in the shadow of an unfinished reactor. It'll be constantly on our minds," said Gregory Cullen, vice president for energy services and development at Energy Northwest.

The site is Energy Northwest's half-built reactor No. 1, near the Columbia Generating Station reactor north of Richland. In 1982, the Washington Public Power Supply System - a consortium of 28 public utilities including Seattle City Light - halted construction of four nuclear reactors at Hanford and Satsop because of massive cost overruns. That led to the second-biggest bond bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Only Reactor No. 2 was completed. In 1998, WPPSS changed its name to Energy Northwest and Reactor No. 2 became the 1,000-megawatt Columbia Generating Stanton in a massive rebranding to leave bankruptcy in the past.

Now the site is targeted to house four small modular reactors - the newest hot ticket in the nuclear industry. The nation's fast-growing power needs plus the hunt for new sources of carbon-free electricity have led the United States to seriously experiment with nuclear energy again, especially small modular reactors. Choosing to locate the reactors on this piece of federal land gives the project the advantage of existing infrastructure, including roads and utilities from the 1980s.

The nation's fast-growing power needs plus the hunt for new sources of carbon-free electricity have led the United States to seriously experiment with nuclear energy again, especially small modular reactors. Choosing to locate the reactors on this piece of federal land gives the project the advantage of existing infrastructure, including roads and utilities from the 1980s.

The money behind the energy development project is coming from an unusual source: Amazon, which already has a pretty big footprint in the Tri-Cities.

Amazon is offering almost $334 million for a multiyear feasibility study of a cluster of small modular reactors to be built at Hanford. "It was Amazon that stepped up," Cullen said. They are partnering with Energy Northwest, whose size enables it to handle a nuclear project of a few billion dollars that an individual utility would be too small to attempt.

The tentative plan is to build a cluster of four small modular reactors - to be owned and operated by Energy Northwest - to provide 320 megawatts to the Northwest power grid. Amazon would have first access to that power for its operations, including its data centers around the Pacific Northwest. Expanding that cluster up to 12 reactors producing 960 megawatts is a future option.