AI power curve prompts hyperscalers to go nuclear
Two leading hyperscalers – Google and Amazon Web Services (AWS) – have announced plans to purchase electrical energy from nuclear sources to power their data centers.
Google has said it has signed a contract to purchase energy from multiple small modular reactors (SMRs) to be developed by Kairos Power LLC (Alameda, Calif.). AWS has announced it has signed three agreements to support the development of nuclear energy projects—including enabling the construction of SMRs.
SMRs are novel form of nuclear reactor that can be built faster than traditional reactors and brought online sooner.
In Washington state AWS has contracted with Energy Northwest, a consortium of public utilities to help develop four SMRs. The company has also participated in a US$500 million investment in X-Energy Reactor Company, LLC (Rockville, Md). X-Energy’s nuclear reactor is set to be used in the Energy Northwest project.
In the state of Virginia AWS has signed an agreement with utility company Dominion Energy to explore the location of an SMR near Dominion’s existing North Anna nuclear power station.
“Nuclear is a safe source of carbon-free energy that can help power our operations and meet the growing demands of our customers, while helping us progress toward our Climate Pledge commitment to be net-zero carbon across our operations by 2040,” said Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), in a statement.
Google intends to bring Kairos Power’s first SMR online by 2030, followed by additional reactor deployments through 2035. Overall, this deal will enable up to 500MW of carbon-free power to US electricity grids.
Observers point out that hyperscalers are engaging with nuclear power because renewable energy cannot meet their mid-term requirements. The same observers point out that it would be more efficient to commission traditional nuclear power stations except that such plants can take more than a decade to be built and come on-stream. Again the power demands that the hyperscalers foresee mean they need nuclear power faster than that. Hence the engagment with SMR pioneers.
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