The path for more nuclear energy in the future could lead to achieving sustainability and power resiliency goals, but it faces huge hurdles including financial, political and personal, including “not in my backyard” safety and health concerns.
The biggest driver of future electricity growth, the data tech sector, apparently has no such reservations and is ready to embrace the next level of nuclear power generation financially, politically and personally.
Tech giants Amazon and Google this week announced huge bets on the future of small reactor nuclear projects. Those moves followed Microsoft’s recent agreement with Constellation Energy that will reopen Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 by 2028.
Ample and emission-free power to meet data center growth
Small nuclear startups such as X-energy and Kairos Power are suddenly the beneficiaries of fresh capital and commitment from Amazon and Google, respectively. And these are long-term deals which realize that new reactors may not be operational until the next decade.
Even so, the moves prove that Big Tech and Big Money believe that nuclear power is dependable, has high capacity and is carbon free—exactly what they want.
“Nuclear is an important source of clean and reliable power that our nation needs to meet the growing demand for energy,” Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, whose affiliate is one of the lead investors in the $500 million funding round for X-energy that included sizable contributions from Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, said in a statement.
Prospects for a Small, Modular and Reactive Future
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Earlier this week, Google also announced it signed a master plant development agreement with Kairos Power to deploy about 500 MW of advanced nuclear energy plants by 2035.
The Amazon deal with X-energy is even more ambitious, aiming for 5 GW by 2039. The companies initially will develop a four-unit, 320-MW project with regional utility Energy Northwestern in central Washington state.
“This collaboration between Amazon and X-energy is a significant step toward accelerating advanced nuclear technologies that can help us bring new sources of carbon-free energy to the grid cost-effectively and safely,” said Kevin Miller, Amazon’s Vice President of Global Data Centers. “We need smart solutions that can help us meet growing energy demands while also addressing climate change. X-energy’s technology will be integral in helping achieve this, and is an important step in Amazon’s work to achieve our Climate Pledge commitment to be net-zero by 2040.”
Growth of AI requires utility-scale energy solutions
The steep rise in artificial intelligence technology, which requires vast amounts of energy to power training operations, is pushing data center growth. Some forecasts predict 47 GW of new data center construction by the early 2030s.
“This collaboration between Amazon and X-energy is a significant step toward accelerating advanced nuclear technologies that can help us bring new sources of carbon-free energy to the grid cost-effectively and safely,” said Kevin Miller, Amazon’s Vice President of Global Data Centers, in a statement. “We need smart solutions that can help us meet growing energy demands while also addressing climate change. X-energy’s technology will be integral in helping achieve this and is an important step in Amazon’s work to achieve our Climate Pledge commitment to be net-zero by 2040.”
Meanwhile, Kairos Power plans to develop, build and operate advanced reactor plants that supply power to Google under power purchase agreements. The plants will be sited in Google service territories, with the first deployed as early as 2030.
“Our partnership with Google will enable Kairos Power to quickly advance down the learning curve as we drive toward cost and schedule certainty for our commercial product,” said Mike Laufer, Kairos Power CEO and co-founder. “By coming alongside in the development phase, Google is more than just a customer. They are a partner who deeply understands our innovative approach and the potential it can deliver.”
Earlier this year, Amazon Web Services acquired a 960-MW hyperscale data center facility in Pennsylvania which is directly connected to Talen Energy’s nearby Susquehanna nuclear power plant. That interconnection is facing some opposition from nearby utilities AEP and Exelon, but Talen Energy countered that this type of deal is an innovative, climate-sensitive way of meeting both energy and sustainability goals.
“The data center economy will require an all-of-the-above approach to satisfy the increased demand, including both co-location such as Talen’s arrangement with AWS and front-of-the-meter connections to utility transmission,” Talen Energy wrote in its statement to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. “We remain resolute in the fact that we have a good solution to a growing need.”
The United States has more than 90 nuclear power units in operation accounting for 19% of the nation’s electricity resource mix. However, only one of those projects—the Vogtle Units 3 and 4 expansion—was constructed in recent years, while most of nuclear energy plants are reaching 40 to 60 years of operation.
Data centers are not the only sector making investments in the future of small modular reactor technologies. The U.S. Army and oil and gas producer Diamondback Energy have made deals with new reactor design firms such as Oklo.
