Gigantic Tech has embraced nuclear energy

Tech giants are increasingly using nuclear reactors to power their energy-hungry data centers. Amazon and Microsoft signed immense contracts with nuclear power plants in the US this year. Both Microsoft and Google have shown interest in next-generation miniature modular reactors that are still in development.

Fresh AI data centers require a lot of electricity, which is pushing companies away from climate goals as greenhouse gas emissions rise. Nuclear reactors could potentially solve both of these problems. As a result, Gigantic Tech will breathe fresh life into America’s aging nuclear reactor fleet while supporting fresh nuclear technologies that have yet to prove themselves.

“The outlook for this industry is certainly brighter today than it was five and 10 years ago,” says Mark Morey, senior adviser for electricity analysis at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration.

Much of the aging U.S. nuclear fleet was commissioned in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the industry has faced backlash after high-profile accidents such as Three Mile Island and the Fukushima disaster in Japan. Nuclear power plants are also costly to build and generally less adaptable than gas plants, which currently make up the largest share of power plants US electricity mix. Gas-fired power plants can scale up and down more quickly as electricity demand ebbs and flows.

Nuclear power plants typically provide constant “base load” power. And this makes it an attractive power source for data centers. Unlike manufacturing or other industries that operate during the day, data centers operate around the clock.

“When people are sleeping, the offices are closed and we don’t use as much [electricity]“What connects nuclear power very well with data centers is that they need power 24/7,” Morey says.

This consistency also distinguishes nuclear power from wind and solar power, which decrease in power with weather or time of day. Over the past five years, many tech companies have accelerated their climate goals by committing to achieve net zero carbon emissions.

However, the additional energy demands of fresh AI tools have made these goals even further out of reach in some cases. In recent years, Microsoft, Google and Amazon have seen increases in greenhouse gas emissions. Obtaining electricity from nuclear reactors is one way companies can try to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Microsoft signed agreement purchasing power from Three Mile Island, which closed in September. “This agreement is a significant milestone in Microsoft’s efforts to decarbonize the grid, supporting our commitment to become carbon negative,” Microsoft vice president of energy Bobby Hollis said in a press release at the time.

The plan is to revive the plant by 2028, a feat never before accomplished in the US. According to Joe Dominguez, president and CEO of Constellation, which owns the plant, the plant “closed prematurely in 2019 due to poor economic conditions.” However, the outlook for nuclear power is now more confident than it has been in years as companies look for carbon-free sources of electricity.

In March, Amazon Web Services purchased a data center campus powered by the neighboring Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania. This The deal was worth $650 million secures electricity from the sixth largest nuclear facility in the USA (z 54 sites Today).

As part of its sustainability plans, Google is considering purchasing nuclear power for its data centers. “Clearly, the AI ​​investment trajectory has increased the scale of the task needed,” said CEO Sundar Pichai w interview with Nikkei this week. “We are currently considering additional investments, whether in solar power, and evaluating technologies such as small modular nuclear reactors, etc.”

He is referring to next-generation reactors, which are still under development and are not expected to be ready for connection to the power grid until the 2030s at the earliest. Last year, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission certified the design of an advanced miniature modular reactor for the first time. These advanced reactors are about that one tenth to one fourth the size of its older predecessors; their size and modular design are intended to make them easier and cheaper to build. They can also be more adaptable than larger nuclear plants in adapting the amount of electricity produced to changes in demand.

First, Bill Gates is completely focused on nuclear energy. He is the founder and president of TerraPower, a company developing miniature modular reactors. Last year, Microsoft posted a job posting for a lead program manager to lead the company’s nuclear strategy for miniature modular reactors.

“I firmly believe that nuclear energy can help us solve the climate problem, which is very, very important,” Gates said in an interview Edge last month.

This week, the Department of Energy released a fresh report report predicts that the United States’ nuclear potential could triple by 2050. After flat line for years, U.S. electricity demand is expected to grow thanks to electric vehicles, fresh data centers, cryptocurrency mining and manufacturing plants. The report shows that growing demand is changing the prospects for nuclear energy. Just a few years ago, utilities were shutting down nuclear reactors. Now they are extending the life of reactors by up to 80 years and planning to restart those that have been closed, he says.

“It is reasonable to think that technology companies could catalyze a new wave of nuclear energy investment in the U.S. and around the world. There has been a lot of talk in the industry about this idea” – Ed Crooks, Wood Mackenzie Senior Vice President, Americas Leadership Director he wrote in this week’s blog post.

This does not necessarily mean that nuclear power in the US is going well. Fresh reactor designs and plans to reopen closed nuclear plants still require regulatory approval. There have been initiatives to build both old-school power plants and fresh designs rising costs AND delays. Amazon is already facing opposition to its nuclear plans in Pennsylvania over concerns it could raise electricity costs for other consumers. The nuclear energy industry continues to face opposition over the impact of uranium mining on nearby communities and concerns about where radioactive waste is disposed of.

“It’s an interesting time, challenging in many ways,” Morey says. “We’ll see what happens.”