Amazon to invest $300m in SA nuclear project

US company X-energy, which has ambitions to build the first small modular reactor (SMR) funded privately in SA, has received an upfront $300m investment from Amazon. Moneyweb reports that the tech giant has undertaken to work with X-energy to develop 4 500MW of SMR to power Amazon data centres at different locations. A typical plant consists of four units with a total output of 320MW, which means Amazon will contribute additional funds for about 14 new SMRs. André Pienaar, CEO of the investment firm C5 Capital, a shareholder in X-energy, says Amazon brings the exceptional ability to build data centres and computer power cost-effectively. This ability will now be utilised to industrialise the manufacturing of SMRs worldwide. He anticipates the democratising of nuclear power. In the past nuclear came in massive structures that belonged to government, but in future private companies will be able to provide their own power supply as reactors become smaller and more affordable. ‘They are becoming smaller – just like computers, with us having more computer power in our phones now than the Appollo had when it went to the moon,’ he said.