A $334m (€316m) agreement between Amazon and public power company Energy Northwest will fund efforts for the development and deployment of up to 12 small modular reactors (SMR) at an existing nuclear site in Washington state.

Amazon will fund the initial feasibility phase of an SMR project, which is planned to be sited near Energy Northwest’s Columbia nuclear power station in Richland, Washington. Columbia has a single 1,131 MW boiling water reactor unit that began commercial operation in 1984.

Richland-based Energy Northwest said the SMRs will be of the Xe-100 design, a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor developed by Maryland-based X-energy.