Cumulus / Susquehanna

Amazon Web Services · Salem Township, Pennsylvania

Water — consumed, not returned

Taken from the basin1,865M gal/yr
Evaporated on site168M gal
Making the power1,697M gal
Basin stressLow
Where the water comes from
Surface water — river, lake or canal
Cooling
Closed-loop with river-water heat rejection
Basis
Modelled from cooling design — WUE 0.25 L/kWh

Air — what the stacks emit

Nitrogen oxides5.14t/yr
Sulphur dioxide2.57t/yr
Fine particulates1.03t PM2.5
Health damages$0.65M/yr
Where it burns
Dedicated nuclear (co-located PPA)
Generation mix
Nuclear ~100%
CO₂e
30.8 kt/yr — climate, not air quality

Who wanted it

Who asked for it
AWS — bought the campus from Talen Energy for $650M
Who approved it
FERC initially rejected the amended interconnection agreement in Nov 2024 over cost-shifting to other ratepayers; a restructured deal followed in 2025
What it serves
AWS compute co-located with a nuclear plant
IT capacity
300 MW running of 960 MW announced

The test case for 'behind-the-meter' co-location: plugging a data center straight into a nuclear plant bypasses the grid, and FERC balked because everyone else still pays for the transmission system it stops using.

nuclear PPAratepayer-cost dispute

Where it is

41.0925°, -76.1447°

Water and air figures are modelled from disclosed capacity, not measured — site-level error is roughly ±40%. Diesel backup generators are not counted, so on-site figures are floors. Full method.