The Idaho National Laboratory, Nvidia, AWS, and Amazon-backed small modular reactor X-energy have launched the Prometheus project, an initiative that seeks to expedite advanced nuclear deployment through the use of AI.

29 Jan 2026

Atoms for Data

A small nuclear revolution is coming to a data center near you

The three-year initiative was awarded $60 million under the US Department of Energy's Genesis Mission, founded to support cooperation between DOE National Labs, industry, academia, and more to harness AI for breakthroughs across science. The initiative received the largest grant out of all the selected projects.

X-energy will provide $10m in private funding to the initiative, as well as its proprietary SMR design and fuel fabrication data. X-energy's Xe-100 SMR and TRISO-X fuel will serve as a technical platform for a three-year research campaign.

X-energy was founded in 2009 and is developing a pebble-bed, high-temperature gas-cooled SMR. Amazon has directly invested in the company and secured the option to deploy more than 5GW of Xe-100 projects in the US by 2039, starting with the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility in Washington State.

When constructed, the facility is expected to comprise three 320MW sections to make up the complete 960MW plant. The first 320MW block will comprise four of X-energy's 80MWe (electric) and 200MWt (thermal) Xe-100 SMRs.

Following the initial phase, the partners will have the option to expand to 12 units, reaching 960MW of capacity. Construction at the site is expected to commence by the end of the decade, with operations to start sometime in the 2030s.

Amazon struck the initial deal with Energy Northwest and X-energy to develop the site last year. X-energy also plans to deploy 6GW in the UK with Centrica.

The initiative was one of 278 selected under the Genesis Mission Request for Applications (RFA). Other notable projects to receive funding include Dispatchable Data Centers: AI-Driven Workload Flexibility for Grid-Aware Load Shaping, to be undertaken by the University of Utah, and From Chip to Chiller: Verifiable Edge AI Agents for Data Center Thermal Management, to be undertaken by The Johns Hopkins University. Projects also included several others focused on nuclear power.

Of the 278 projects, 87 will be led by the DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) National Laboratories, 168 are led by universities, 19 by companies, and four by nonprofits.

Idaho National Laboratory, Nvidia, AWS, X-energy launch Prometheus project under Genesis Mission