At the end of last month, we published an article about artificial intelligence’s (“AI’s”) insatiable need for power.  AI’s large energy requirements cannot be obtained from “renewable” energy sources, i.e. wind and solar, because it is unreliable and intermittent.  So, technology companies are looking to nuclear power, which has now been labelled as “green energy,” as their power source.

What prompted our article was that Microsoft and Constellation Energy had just unveiled a power purchase deal that would enable a restart of a reactor at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear plant, the site of America’s worst nuclear accident.

And now, Google is turning to nuclear reactors to power its AI data centres.

Technology giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are rapidly expanding their data centre capabilities to meet the AI revolution’s computing needs while also scouring the globe for sources of electricity, Science Alert said.

[Further reading: Google signs nuclear SMR deal with Kairos for data centre power, Data Centre Dynamics, 14 October 2024]

On Monday, Google signed a deal with Kairos Power to purchase electricity from small nuclear reactors to power its artificial intelligence operations.

“We believe that nuclear energy has a critical role to play in supporting our clean growth and helping to deliver on the progress of AI,” Google senior director of energy and climate Michael Terrell said during a briefing.

“The grid needs these kinds of clean, reliable sources of energy that can support the build-out of these technologies,” he said.

The first small modular reactor (“SMR”) developed by Kairos is expected to be online by the end of the decade with additional reactors coming online through 2035, generating a combined total of 500 megawatts of power.

SMRs are more compact and potentially easier to deploy than traditional nuclear reactors, with big investments by Bill Gates in the sector, but the technology is still in its infancy and lacks regulatory approval.

Google views the partnership with Kairos as a significant step towards achieving its goal of having abundant carbon-free energy available around the clock to support its AI operations.

The deal is seen as a promising bet by Google, with the potential to deliver enormous benefits to communities and power grids around the world if it can be scaled up globally.

The use of nuclear energy by technology companies like Google and Microsoft is driven by the need for a consistent source of power to meet the electricity demands of AI, which is seen as more reliable than solar and wind power.

However, nuclear energy also has its opponents, who raise concerns about radioactive waste disposal, the potential for catastrophic accidents and the high costs associated with plant construction and decommissioning.

Despite these concerns, companies like Amazon are also investing in nuclear energy, with Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) agreeing in March to invest $650 million in a data centre campus powered by a Pennsylvania nuclear plant.

The above is a précis of the article ‘Google Pivots to Nuclear Reactors to Power Its Artificial Intelligence’ published by Science Alert.  You can read the full article HERE.

Featured image: Google CEO Sundar Pichai taken from ‘Google considers sourcing from nuclear power plants, says CEO Pichai’, Nikkei Asia, 3 October 2024