The Waynesboro, Georgia, nuclear power plant Vogtle. The final two nuclear reactors at Vogtle were completed years behind schedule and tens of billions of dollars over budget.Give credit…Kendrick Brinson, New York Times photographer
Nuclear power facilities are becoming more and more popular among technology companies as a source of the emissions-free electricity required to power artificial intelligence and other enterprises.
Recently, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have entered into agreements with nuclear power plant operators and developers to support the growth of data centres, which offer computing services to both small and large organisations. Due to the significant investments these and other internet companies have made in artificial intelligence (A.I.), which demands significantly more processing power than more traditional tech businesses like social media, video streaming, and web searches, the demand has increased.
Microsoft has committed to paying an energy business to reopen Pennsylvania’s closed Three Mile Island nuclear power station. Furthermore, a new generation of compact modular reactors was the focus of announcements made this week by Google and Amazon. Although that technology has not yet been effectively commercialised, energy experts speculate that it could be less expensive and simpler to construct than the massive nuclear reactors that the US has been building since the 1950s.
Large technology firms that once made significant investments in solar and wind energy are now more inclined towards nuclear energy because they need reliable power that emits no greenhouse gases. Although they don’t cause climate change, solar and wind energy can’t be used continuously without the aid of batteries or other energy storage devices. The largest IT businesses have all committed to using emissions-free electricity to power their operations by 2030, but that was before artificial intelligence took off and increased energy requirements.
“They want to grow all of this in a sustainable way, and right now nuclear is the best answer,” S&P Global Ratings managing director Aneesh Prabhu stated.
Google announced on Monday that it has decided to buy nuclear energy from small modular reactors being created by Kairos Power, a start-up. The company anticipated that the first reactor would be operational by 2030. Then, on Wednesday, Amazon said that it will contribute to X-Energy, a different start-up, in order to help them construct compact modular reactors. The agreement between Microsoft and Constellation Energy to bring Three Mile Island’s reactor back online was revealed last month.
According to Mr Prabhu, building compact modular reactors might run up to $1 billion apiece, and it might be possible in the future to locate them next to data centres.
IT corporations are not the only ones who support nuclear power. A measure that was just approved by President Biden is expected to expedite the creation of new nuclear energy projects, according to its writers, who secured bipartisan majorities in Congress.
About 20 percent of the country’s electricity currently comes from nuclear power, which the Biden administration views as essential to meeting its targets for lowering greenhouse gas emissions. In the past, a lot of Democrats opposed the construction of new nuclear reactors due to safety, environmental, and financial concerns.
The energy secretary, Jennifer M. Granholm, stated in a statement that “revitalising America’s nuclear sector is key to adding more carbon-free energy to the grid and meeting the needs of our growing economy — from A.I. and data centres to manufacturing and health care.”
Support for nuclear initiatives by the tech sector may help revitalise a faltering energy source. The United States is the nation with the most operational nuclear power plant reactors—94—but just two of those units were constructed here in the last few years. Though they were built years behind schedule and tens of billions of dollars over budget at the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Waynesboro, Georgia, both units were completed.
The two reactors were a part of the much-discussed “nuclear renaissance,” which was expected to produce roughly two dozen new reactors. However, a failed nuclear power plant in South Carolina and Vogtle’s issues caused such hopes to fade.
Executives in the IT sector believe that this time will be different, and some have bet their personal fortunes on it. Co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates has spent over $1 billion in TerraPower, a start-up that is collaborating with Warren Buffett’s utility company PacifiCorp to create smaller reactors.
The concept is that each unit’s parts might be sufficiently compact to be mass-produced on an assembly line, resulting in lower costs. Reactors might be added one or more at a time to each power plant starting off.
Big IT businesses are among the members of the Clean Energy Buyers Association, a trade association led by Rich Powell. “The key with nuclear is you have to pick something and build a lot of it to make it cheap,” Powell said.
However, others who oppose nuclear energy are dubious. They contend that although the utilities’ and IT companies’ message may seem convincing, it ignores persistent issues with nuclear energy. The exorbitant cost of building new reactors, construction hold-ups, and the absence of a permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel are some of these issues.
According to Arnie Gundersen, head engineer of Fairewinds Energy Education, a group that opposes nuclear power, the United States has attempted to develop 250 power reactors since 1960. Before they could produce any electricity, more over half were cancelled. Not a single one of the remaining reactors was ever finished on schedule or within budget.
However, a lot of IT and energy professionals argue that nuclear power is necessary since renewable energy sources such as hydropower, solar, and wind aren’t dependable enough to fulfil the world’s expanding energy needs.
Since more people and companies are using battery-powered cars, heat pumps, and air conditioners, the amount of electricity used has already increased in recent years. Data centres in the tech sector are now accelerating that rise.
Though still a small portion of the world’s energy use, data centres are becoming more prevalent and concentrated in places like Northern Virginia, where their presence can put strain on local grids.
Data centres need electricity to power their computer servers and, most importantly, to keep them cool. Data centres depend so heavily on power that the industry measures a building’s size in megawatts acquired from utilities rather than square footage.
In a typical data centre, one rack of servers requires five to ten kilowatts of power to run; but, according to Raul Martynek, CEO of DataBank, a data centre firm, a rack full of powerful A.I. computer processors can require far over 100 kilowatts. “It is an order of magnitude more intensive from an infrastructure perspective,” he declared.
The demand and potential that the tech titans see in artificial intelligence have led them to dramatically increase their spending. With a total expenditure of $59 billion on capital expenses in the most recent quarter, the five biggest tech companies—Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Facebook—spent 63 percent more than they did a year ago. Additionally, they have told investors that they intend to continue spending.
This year, Amazon invested $650 million to purchase a data centre facility that is now under construction and will be fuelled by a Pennsylvanian nuclear power plant. Microsoft has also committed to purchasing electricity from Helion Energy, a start-up based in the Seattle region that plans to construct the first nuclear fusion power plant in history by 2028, in addition to the Three Mile Island arrangement.
