Note: Here are earlier updates.
Nuclear Power for AI Data Centers: December 2024 News and Updates
December 27 - Supercomputers and Energy Research: ENEA -- the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development -- has selected Lenovo for a high performance computing (HPC) system at the Portici (Naples) hub. The HPC will accelerate research activities on clean energy, in particular on nuclear fusion, the organizations said. Ricca IT, an IT service provider in Italy, will manage the installation project.
December 19 - Partnership - Data Center Energy Supplies: Oklo, a nuclear energy startup backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has signed an agreement to provide power to data center operator Switch, Reuters reported. Key Switch financial backers include Climate Adaptive Infrastructure (CAI).
December 9 - Nuclear Energy Demand Drivers: Three trends are driving renewed interest in nuclear technology, according to EY. They include:
- Technology companies need larger quantities of clean energy for AI operations;
- countries, too, are diversifying their green energy goals while also meeting their country’s demand; and
- advanced nuclear technologies have emerged, making adoption more viable, EY said.
December 3 - Meta and Nuclear Power: Facebook parent Meta is seeking to leverage nuclear reactors starting in the early 2030s to power and support AI data centers and surrounding communities, Axios reported.
December 3- Norway Strategy: Norsk Kjernekraft has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with X-energy to explore deploying small modular reactors (SMRs) in Norway, NEI Magazine reported.
December 2 - Revenue Target: GE Vernova is striving to generate $2 billion in annual revenue from small modular reactors (SMRs) by the mid-2030s, CNBC reported.
Nuclear Power for AI Data Centers: November 2024 News and Updates
November 22 - Nuclear Power and Google Data Centers: Nuclear startup Kairos Power has received approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to start construction on two test reactors in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, TechCrunch reported. The permit marks a significant milestone for Kairos, which in October 2024 inked a deal with Google to provide 500 megawatts of electricity for its data centers, the report noted.
November 19 - Green Technology Investment: ADIB is investing in DeepGreenX Group, and the two organizations plan to accelerate green projects worldwide. Their efforts will likely span green data centers and low-energy computing, small nuclear reactors, energy storage solutions, alternative fuel production like hydrogen, ammonia, alcohol, and natural gas, as well as virtual power grids and power grid equipment, the two companies said.
November 14 - United Kingdom and Nuclear Energy: Great British Nuclear, the UK government's nuclear energy agency, will seek bids from four companies to supply small modular reactors (SMRs) to boost the country's power generation, The Register reported.
November 14 - Global Nuclear Energy Expansion: Thirty-one countries plan to triple their nuclear energy capacity by 2050, according to the World Nuclear Association.
November 13 - United States Nuclear Energy Investments: The United States will aim to deploy 200 GW of net new nuclear energy capacity by 2050, at least tripling current U.S. nuclear energy capacity, according to the Biden Administration.
November 8 - Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Challenges: NuScale Power, a provider of small modular reactors (SMRs), sees opportunity ahead for nuclear power in the AI data center market. But near-term revenues remain challenging.
November 8 - Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Testing: Texas A&M University has potential sites available for multiple companies to test and construct next generation nuclear reactors, the university disclosed.
November 7 - Supercomputer - Nuclear Fusion Research: ENEA, a National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, plans to deploy a Lenovo HPC system at the Portici (Naples) hub. The goal: Accelerate research activities on clean energy, in particular on nuclear fusion, the organizations said.
November 6 - Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Research: The global small modular reactor (SMR) market will reach $6.48 billion by 2031, up from $5.72 billion in 2023, DataM Intelligence predicted. That's a 1.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). That's a remarkably slow growth rate considering the hype about SMRs as a potential power source for AI data centers.
November 6 - AWS Nuclear Commitment: Amazon.com has said it will continue to back a deal for an AWS data center in Pennsylvania powered by Talen Energy's nuclear power plant, despite regulatory pushback, SeekingAlpha reported.
November 4: Feds Block Nuclear Partnership Expansion: The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rejected an expanded Amazon-Talen Energy nuclear power agreement. FERC members said the deal could raise power bills for the public and affect the grid's reliability, SeekingAlpha reported. Talen Energy is "exploring other solutions" to move forward. The news pressured multiple nuclear energy stocks.
Nuclear Power for AI Data Centers: October 2024 News, Milestones, Policies and Safely Debates
Multiple Updates...
- Cloud Services: Amazon has signed a nuclear power agreement with Energy Northwest. The deal, focused on the state of Washington, will enable the development of four SMRs (small modular reactors), the company said.
- Japan - Nuclear Power: Japan has restarted a nuclear reactor that is located near the site of a 2011 earthquake. The Onagawa nuclear reactor restart is a "big milestone" in the country's atomic revival, Bloomberg reported.
- Startup - SMRs and Data Centers: Deep Atomic, a nuclear energy startup, plans to introduce a new small modular reactor (SMR) designed to power data centers, the company said. We don't know planned timing for the launch. Deep Atomic is based in Zurich, Switzerland, with additional offices in South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom. CEO William Theron also is founder of Nova Data Centers -- a developer of modular, self-contained AI data centers.
- Relaunch?: Nextera Energy is "very interested" in reviving a closed nuclear power plant in Iowa, Bloomberg reported. Multiple energy and big tech companies are exploring nuclear solutions to power generative AI data centers. Related Timeline: Why Nuclear Energy May Power AI Data Centers.
- Three Mile Island - Regulatory Discussions: U.S. nuclear regulators kicked off a long-winding process to consider Constellation Energy's unprecedented plans to restart its retired Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, Reuters reported.
- Three Mile Island - Potential Restore Costs: The effort to restore Unit 1 at Three Mile Island is expected to take four years, at least $1.6 billion, and thousands of workers to complete the unprecedented task of restarting a retired nuclear plant, Reuters reported. Constellation Energy is restarting the plant, which Microsoft will leverage for energy.
- Nuclear Energy - Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Doubts: SMRs are not economically feasible, NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum said during the energy company's earnings call.
- Potential M&A: Ubitus K.K, a cloud services company backed by Nvidia, is looking to acquire land to build a data center in Kyoto, Shimane, or a prefecture in Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, owing to the availability of nuclear power in the region, Bloomberg reported and SeekingAlpha recapped.
- Investment: Amazon Climate Pledge Fund has invested in nuclear startup X-energy, a developer of small modular reactors.
- Asia - Power Strategy: Amazon prefers to leverage wind and solar energy rather than nuclear power in Asia, Bloomberg reported.
- Partnership - Cloud Services: Google has partnered with Kairos Power to deploy small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) to support its 24/7 carbon-free energy targets by 2035.
- Data Centers - Nuclear Power: Google may tap nuclear energy to power its data centers, CEO Sundar Pichai told Nikkei Asia.
Note: Continue to next page for earlier updates involving nuclear power for AI data centers.
