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The nuclear industry is racing to launch advanced small reactors by the early 2030s, aiming to meet the deep-pocketed technology sector’s growing need for electricity to fuel artificial intelligence.

The world has relied largely on the same pressurized-water reactor technology for the past 70 years, but those plants have proven incredibly expensive to build in the U.S. in the 21st century.

The first new nuclear plant completed in decades, reactors 3 and 4 at Plant Vogtle in Georgia, infamously cost about $18 billion more than expected and opened seven years behind schedule. Each of those reactors can generate 1,114 megawatts of electricity, enough for more than 800,000 homes.

“Doing these new builds with that older, high pressure technology is just unaffordable,” Chris Levesque, CEO of TerraPower, an advanced reactor company co-founded and backed by Bill Gates, told CNBC.

Despite growing interest in restarting closed reactors, such as Palisades in Michigan and Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, as a quicker and cheaper near-term solution, there remains “a whole lot of hesitation about a brand new plant,” Levesque said.

The advanced reactors under development promise to have smaller, lighter footprints that could make them cheaper and quicker to build when they are fully commercialized. But the industry is crowded with more than 90 different technologies in various stages of development around the world, according to the Nuclear Energy Agency.

The utility and tech sectors need to winnow down the field to five or 10 companies with the right technology, said John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy, the largest power company by market capitalization in the U.S.

“A lot of them are under capitalized,” Ketchum said of the small nuclear startups designing advanced reactors. “So we’ve got to pick out the ones that we really want to get behind and make the bets,” the CEO said at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston earlier this month.

Ketchum sees the first advanced reactor coming online around 2031 in the U.S., with more units potentially on the way around 2035. Technology companies will serve as a catalyst, with Levesque saying they are a “huge force” that can drive the industry forward due to their immense demand for electricity coupled with their deep pockets. Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft together are worth seven times the value of the entire S&P 500 utility sector.

The following are some of the leading players in the U.S. market to revive nuclear power, all three of them private but with significant financial backing — often from tech companies — and customers already lined up.

TerraPower

TerraPower is the first advanced reactor company in the U.S. to move from design to construction, breaking ground on its first plant near a former coal site in Kemmerer, Wyoming in the summer of 2024. The company aims to start dispatching power by the end of 2030 to Warren Buffett’s PacifiCorp.

TerraPower’s Natrium reactor operates at atmospheric temperature, a feature that Levesque says will reduce construction costs.

The U.S. currently relies on reactors that operate at about 300 Celsius (572 degrees Fahrenheit) and are cooled by water. The system operates under high pressure — water boils at 100 degree Celsius — to keep the coolant liquid, and the plants need heavy, expensive components to contain the pressure, Levesque said.

TerraPower uses sodium, rather than water, as a coolant. Liquid sodium boils at 900 Celsius, much higher than the Natrium reactor’s operating temperature of around 500 Celsius. That means the plant does not need to be pressurized, Levesque said.

Why Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta are investing in nuclear power

Using a low-pressure, lighter plant to avoid high pressure systems “reduces tons of steel, tons of concrete, labor hours, numbers of systems,” Levesque said. He estimates that Natrium plants will cost about half as much to build as a traditional nuclear plant, with prices coming down as more are built.

The Natrium reactor has a power capacity of 345 megawatts, enough for more than 250,000 homes. A plant will have the ability to ramp up to 500 megawatts for several hours by storing heat in a thermal battery made of molten salt, Levesque says. The idea is to be able to dispatch power on demand to the grid when renewable solar and wind power fade because the sun isn’t shinning or winds are slack.

TerraPower has the financial backing of its key founder Bill Gates, SK Group, one of South Korea’s largest energy providers, and ArcelorMittal, a steelmaker. Gates and SK Group led TerraPower’s $830 million funding round in 2022. The Wyoming project is backed by $2 billion from the Department of Energy, which TerraPower says it will match dollar for dollar.

TerraPower filed its construction license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2024 and expects the regulator will issue a permit in December 2026.

“We’re trying to show folks we’re inevitable,” Levesque said.

X-Energy

Of all the advanced reactor companies, X-Energy is the first to win a direct investment from a tech company, securing hundreds of millions of dollars from Amazon to build its Xe-100 reactor.

“What this sector needs is risk capital to invest in plants because U.S. utilities aren’t doing it today,” X-Energy CEO Clay Sell told CNBC.

X-Energy’s most recent financing round raised $700 million, led by Amazon and with additional capital from Citadel founder Ken Griffin, Ares Management, Segra Capital Management, Jane Street Capital and the University of Michigan, among others.

“One of the largest corporations in America, a company that is in size larger than the entirety of the investor-owned utility sector in the U.S., was stepping forward and saying we want to facilitate the new nuclear future in the United States,” Sell said of Amazon’s investment.

Amazon goes nuclear, to invest more than $500 million to develop small module reactors

The cash will largely go to completing the reactor design so it’s ready for construction, and finishing the first phase of X-Energy’s fuel facility, Sell said.

The Xe-100 is an 80 megawatt reactor sold in a pack of four units to construct 320 megawatts in total, the CEO said. The multiple units create redundancy and the small size allows the biggest component, the reactor vessel, to ship from a factory via road to the construction site, Sell said.

The reactor uses helium gas as a coolant rather than water. X-Energy has its own proprietary fuel made of graphite pebbles that contain uranium kernels encased in ceramic. Sell said the graphite can’t melt, which makes the plant “intrinsically safe.”

Amazon’s investment will finance four Xe-100 reactors in Washington state that will be built, owned and operated by Energy Northwest, a utility, with plants coming online in the early 2030s. The intent is to scale up to a dozen Xe-100s in Washington, Sell said.

X-Energy is also working with Dow Inc. to deploy four reactors at the chemical company’s manufacturing facility in Seadrift, Texas. The Department of Energy has awarded X-Energy up to $1.2 billion to develop and deploy its technoloy.

X-Energy aims to become the first company to commission an operational advanced reactor in the U.S., Sell said.

Kairos Power

Kairos Power signed a contract with Alphabet’s Google unit last year to deploy multiple, advanced reactors, aiming to supply the YouTube company with 500 megawatts of power. The first reactor is expected to come online in 2030, with additional deployments through 2035.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the Google contract is “immensely important,” allowing Kairos to “plan the infrastructure not just for one project but for a series of projects,” CEO Mike Laufer told CNBC.

“It allows us to scale our infrastructure, production — our manufacturing capabilities,” Laufer said.

Google announces nuclear energy partnership with Kairos Power

The 75-megawatt Kairos’ reactor will be deployed in pairs to provide 150 megawatts of total power. Similar to TerraPower, Kairos’ reactor operates at near atmospheric pressure using molten fluoride salt instead of water as coolant. Like X-Energy, Kairos uses fuel that encases uranium kernels in ceramic and graphite pebbles that can’t melt in high-temperature reactors, according to the company.

Kairos is building a low-power, demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee to showcase its ability “to deliver clean, safe, and affordable nuclear heat.” Oak Ridge, site of a national laboratory about 25 miles west of Knoxville, was where uranium was enriched as part of the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bombs.

Today, there will be a “natural thinning” in the number of advance reactor companies, Kairos CEO Laufer said: “It’s going to be driven by who can actually be in a position to execute projects,” he said.

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EcoFlow DELTA 2 Max solar bundle $1,139 low, Lectric ONE e-bike gets $319 in free gear, Anker SOLIX C300 90,000mAh stations, more

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August 4, 2025

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EcoFlow DELTA 2 Max solar bundle ,139 low, Lectric ONE e-bike gets 9 in free gear, Anker SOLIX C300 90,000mAh stations, more

We’re starting this week’s Green Deals with EcoFlow’s August Home Backup Sale that is seeing up to 59% initial discounts, bonus savings, continued 3x and 3.5x EcoCredit rewards, new free gift promotions, and more – with plenty of ongoing low prices like the DELTA 2 Max Solar Generator bundle that gives you a 220W panel at its $1,139 low, among many others. We also have Lectric’s ONE Long-Range e-bike getting the biggest $319 bundle of 2025 at $2,399, as well as Anker’s SOLIX C300 90,000mAh Power Stations and bundle options starting from $170. From there, we also have EcoFlow’s latest 48-hour flash sale on two power station bundles and a dual solar panel option, alongside the best price of the year on Worx’s 20V JawSaw PowerShare Cordless Chainsaw.Plus, all the hangover savings from last week are at the bottom of the page, rounded together in our Electrified Weekly coverage, which includes the new EcoFlow TRAIL releases, exclusive Bluetti Apex 300 launch savings, and much more.

Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

Save up to 59% on EcoFlow power stations and backup bundles with bonus savings, free gifts, up to 3.5x EcoCredits – all from $179

EcoFlow has launched a new Home Backup Sale through August 17 that is continuing some of the Monthly Madness rewards from last week while adding new free gift promotions and extra savings – with this event running parallel to the brand’s release of the new TRAIL series power stations. One of the notable low prices we’re seeing during this period is on EcoFlow’s DELTA 2 Max Solar Generator bundle that comes with a 220W solar panel for $1,139.05 shipped, after using the code 25EFDCAFF at checkout for an additional 5% off your order, which beats out Amazon’s current pricing by $60. Normally going for $2,548 in full here, over the last seven months we’ve seen discounts take things to their lowest for $1,139 back during last month’s Prime Day event, with prices otherwise keeping at or above $1,199. That low price is coming back thanks to the bonus savings, giving you $1,409 in savings and the best price we have tracked.

As previously mentioned, this Home Backup Sale is seeing some continuations alongside some new free gift promotions. Of course, there’s the extra 5% savings you’ll get using the code 25EFDCAFF at checkout, but standard members will also be getting 3x EcoCredits from orders, while Plus members get 3.5x EcoCredits – which you can use to score future discounts and other exchanged rewards. If you already have some saved, you can spend 500 to unlock a spin on the brand’s Lucky Draw wheel for guaranteed gifts/savings. There’s also the chance to get a free refurbished RIVER 2 Max power station with purchases of select DELTA series units.

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For folks not wanting to spend too much on larger whole-home backup systems but want to maintain their peace of mind during trips away from home and possible at-home outage emergencies, EcoFlow’s DELTA 2 Max is a solid option that starts with a 2,048Wh LiFePO4 capacity and can expand as high as 6,144Wh with add-on expansion batteries. It pumps out a steady stream of 2,400W of power through its 15 output port options, with the ability to surge up to 3,400W once you’ve activated its X-Boost mode in the remote app controls. A wall outlet can bring the battery back to 83% in 1.1 hours, with the option to plug it into your car’s auxiliary port to charge as you drive, on top of a max 1,000W solar input that can also be used simultaneously with a wall outlet for faster 43-minute charge times.

If you just want EcoFlow’s DELTA 2 Max power station by itself, you can pick it up at $996.55 shipped, after using the 5% off code, while bundling EcoFlow’s DELTA 2 Max with an 800W alternator charger that tops it off faster than a car auxiliary port will cost you $1,139.05 shipped, after using the extra savings code.

You can browse the full lineup during this EcoFlow August Home Backup Sale by checking out our original coverage of these deals here.

man riding down sidewalk on Lectric ONE e-bike

Lectric’s 60-mile traveling ONE e-bike with a Gates carbon belt drive gets largest $319 bundle of 2025 at $2,399

Looking in on Lectric’s ongoing Back to School Sale, we wanted to shine a spotlight on the biggest bundle we’ve seen accompany the brand’s ONE Long-Range e-bike at $2,399 shipped, which is getting $319 in free gear that includes a rear cargo rack, fenders to go over the tires, and a 4-liter frame bag. This package would normally run you $2,718 at full price, if it weren’t for the brand’s trend of offering savings on the bundles. While we did see it get a $308 bundle back in February, this model has otherwise only been getting $220 in free gear this year, but now, during this sale, we’re seeing a larger bundle than ever in 2025.

If you want to learn more about this model, be sure to check out our original coverage of this deal here, while you can also check out the full lineup of Back to School e-bike deals from this brand here.

man hiking through woods with Anker SOLIX C300 DC power station hanging from shoulder

Anker’s SOLIX C300 power stations are portable 90,000mAh backup companions that start from $170 (up to 32% off)

By way of its official Amazon storefront, Anker is offering its SOLIX C300 DC Portable Power Station at $169.99 shipped, beating out the brand’s direct website pricing by $20. You’d have to pay $250 for this unit at full price regularly, though discounts in 2025 have seen it go as low as $150, which was last seen in July’s Prime Day Sale event, with things otherwise seen repeating to $170 since June. This is the third-lowest price we have tracked, giving you $80 off the going rate and landing $30 above the all-time low from Black Friday and Christmas sales.

If you want to learn more about this model or get the rundown on its predecessor and bundle options, be sure to check out our original coverage of these deals here.

four people enjoying camping in tent with EcoFlow DELTA 2 power station with extra battery bundle

Save up to 62% on DELTA 2 and DELTA Pro bundles, as well as dual solar panels, starting from $499 for 48 hours

Alongside launching its latest Home Backup Sale that is running through August 17, EcoFlow has also launched a 48-hour flash sale that is taking up to 62% off three offers, with things starting lowest on the DELTA 2 Portable Power Station that comes bundled with a smart extra battery for $899 shipped, which beats out its Amazon pricing by $50. This bundle would cost you $1,798 at full price directly from the brand, while we’ve seen it more regularly at $1,289 at Amazon. Discounts this year have seen it fall to $799 back in March, with things otherwise dropping between $849 and $999 during sales. You’re looking at a 50% markdown off its MSRP here and the third-lowest price of 2025, while the savings last through today and tomorrow.

If you want to learn more about this bundle or the two other offers, be sure to check out our original coverage of this flash sale here.

man cutting thick tree branch with Worx 20V JawSaw cordless chainsaw

Worx’s 20V JawSaw chomps through thick branches with a retractable blade at $101

Amazon is offering the best price of the year on Worx’s 20V JawSaw PowerShare Cordless Chainsaw at $101.40 shipped. Most of the past year we’ve seen this more unique chainsaw keeping up at a full $170 rate, which we saw drop to $130 during Black Friday and Christmas sales and more recently fell to $109 at the top of July. While it has dropped as far as $89 in past years, today’s deal comes in lower than we’ve seen in the last 12 months, giving you $69 off the going rate and beating out our previous mention by $8.

If you want to learn more about this unique chainsaw, be sure to check out our original coverage of this deal here.

Best Summer EV deals!

Best new Green Deals landing this week

The savings this week are also continuing to a collection of other markdowns. To the same tune as the offers above, these all help you take a more energy-conscious approach to your routine. Winter means you can lock in even better off-season price cuts on electric tools for the lawn while saving on EVs and tons of other gear.

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Hyundai is now selling used vehicles on Amazon, including EVs

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August 4, 2025

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Hyundai is now selling used vehicles on Amazon, including EVs

Hyundai-used-vehicles-Amazon

Did you want a used Hyundai with your next Amazon order? You might need a bigger cart. You can now view, compare, and shop for new or used Hyundai vehicles directly on Amazon, including its top-selling EVs like the IONIQ 5.

How to buy used Hyundai EVs on Amazon

After teaming up with the e-commerce giant in December to sell new vehicles, Hyundai is now offering used and certified pre-owned vehicles on Amazon.

You can now buy a new or used Hyundai vehicle directly from a dealer through Amazon Auto. The platform is an all-in-one online shop that allows you to find, order, finance, and schedule pickup of a new or used Hyundai. You can even get an estimate for your trade-in and drop it off when you pick up your new vehicle.

The service for new vehicles is available across 130 cities in the US. Although used cars are currently only available in LA, Amazon said new cities will be added in the coming months.

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The used and CPO programs show a list of available vehicles from local Hyundai dealers that you can choose from. Amazon offers a 3-day/300,000-mile return policy and a minimum 30-day/1,000 mile limited warranty on all vehicles.

Hyundai-used-vehicles-Amazon
Amazon Auto now offers used and certified pre-owned Hyundai vehicles, including EVs (Source: Amazon)

Amazon Auto allows you to search by make, model, trim, color, or feature, making it easy to find your dream car. You can then get an instant quote, get a trade-in estimate, and secure financing all on Amazon’s trusted platform.

One of the biggest perks is the transparent pricing — no more negotiating with dealers. The price you see is the price you pay.

Hyundai-EVs-Amazon
How to buy Hyundai EVs on Amazon (Source: Hyundai)

After the payment process is complete, you will schedule a time and day to pick up the new vehicle from a local dealership.

Amazon is expanding the program and plans to offer more brands next year. Other options, such as leasing and expanded financing options, will be available soon.

Hyundai-EVs-Amazon
Hyundai’s new 2025 IONIQ 5 Limited with a Tesla NACS port (Source: Hyundai)

To view Hyundai vehicles near you, you can visit Amazon.com/Amazon-Autos today. Despite the new tariffs, Hyundai is one of the few brands that’s actually offering lower prices.

Starting at just $179 per month, the 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 might be the best EV deal on the market right now. The new three-row IONIQ 9 (see our review) can be leased from $419 per month.

For those without access to Amazon Auto, don’t worry — we can still help you find your next vehicle. You can use our links below to view deals on Hyundai EV models in your area.

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Segway launches new version of its 90-mile range high performance e-bike

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August 4, 2025

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Segway launches new version of its 90-mile range high performance e-bike

Segway has just unveiled a striking new version of its popular Xafari electric bike in Crimson Red. The micromobility giant, best known for its scooters and self-balancing tech, is adding a splash of personality to its multi-surface cruiser, all without compromising on the impressive comfort, connectivity, and performance that made the original so interesting and distinctive looking.

The Xafari, which originally debuted at CES 2025 alongside the more moto-styled Segway Xyber, is an e-bike designed to operate in either Class 1, 2, or 3 modes and is built for both urban commuting and light off-road adventure-style riding.

With a 750W rear hub motor and 936 Wh battery, it offers a range of up to 88 miles (142 km), while full suspension and semi-fat 26×3.0” tires help smooth out bumps on everything from pavement to packed dirt trails.

But the real differentiator here is the tech. The Xafari includes a smart 2.4” TFT color display with navigation and ride metrics, an adaptive pedal assist system that automatically adjusts power based on gradient and rider input, and a suite of connectivity tools rarely seen on e-bikes at this price point.

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Those include Apple Find My and Segway GPS tracking, an app-based lockout system with motion alarm, and even cloud-based maintenance alerts. There’s also a handlebar scroll wheel to easily control assist levels and the display, as well as an intelligent lighting system with automatic high/low beams.

The new Crimson Red colorway came directly from dealer feedback, with Segway’s retail partners overwhelmingly requesting a bolder, more expressive look.

“This colorway turns heads, but more importantly, it reflects the bold, confident rider we built this product for,” said Nick Howe, head of Segway’s e-bike division. The bike originally launched with much more muted coloring.

The Segway Xafari in Crimson Red is available now through Segway’s website and authorized dealers. It carries an MSRP of $2,399.99, though early promotional pricing drops it to $1,999.99 for the launch.

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