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The Dominion coal burning power plant is seen in Saint Paul, Virginia on Tuesday, February 7, 2023. Community leaders in Southwestern Virginia are giving serious consideration to the idea of utilizing formerly mined coal sites to house small modular nuclear reactors.
Mike Belleme | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Dominion Energy is talking with other tech companies about developing small modular nuclear reactors, after the Virginia utility entered into an agreement with Amazon last month to look at advancing the next generation technology .
“It’s very encouraging to see large power users, including technology companies, express a willingness to invest, partner and collaborate to bring this exciting base load carbon free technology into fruition,” Dominion CEO Robert Blue told investors on the company’s third-quarter earnings call Friday.
Dominion and Amazon have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore developing a small modular reactor near the utility’s North Anna nuclear station in Louisa County, Virginia. The small reactor would bring 300 megawatts of power to Virginia.
Virginia is one of the most nuclear friendly states in the nation with strong bipartisan support for next-generation nuclear initiatives, Blue said.
“It’s not surprising that our large customers would be interested as they think about us as a good operator of nuclear, to work together on maybe advancing those kinds of technologies,” the CEO told investors.
“So we’ve been talking with Amazon obviously and others,” the CEO said.
Tech companies are investing in nuclear power as they hunt for carbon-free, reliable electricity to support the growing energy needs of artificial intelligence data centers. Dominion serves the largest data center market in the world, northern Virginia.
Earlier this year, Amazon bought a data center campus from Talen Energy that will be powered by the Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. Microsoft has signed an agreement to purchase power from Three Mile Island as Constellation Energy aims to restart the plant in 2028. And Alphabet‘s Google agreed last month to purchase power from the startup Kairos Power, a developer of small modular reactors.
Small modular reactors promise to reduce capital costs and speed the deployment of nuclear plants. They have a smaller footprint than large reactors, making them easier to site in principle, and promise a simpler manufacturing process.
But the technology has struggled to reach the commercial stage. There is no operating small modular reactor in the U.S. right now.