Big technology’s big bet on artificial intelligence-fueled nuclear power

It may have seemed like one of the strange headlines for 2024. Microsoft is paying $1.6 billion to reopen the 3-mile island. That’s the Pennsylvania nuclear power plant in Reactor #2. There was a partial meltdown in 1979. There were no injuries and no one died, but it brought the nuclear industry back to age. Since that accident, only two new plants have been launched.

“This is the sacred ground of the nuclear industry,” said Joe Dominguez, CEO of Constellation Energy, which owns about half of America’s 54 nuclear power plants (including three-mile islands). “This is where we learned and got better.”

He says that the 1979 accident caused thousands of changes in nuclear protocols and procedures. “What people forget is that there was another nuclear reactor on the site,” he said. “That site, that reactor, continued to operate until 2019. When closed for financial reasons. Cheap natural gas, low demand, subsidies for various technologies in the business, and (and) nuclear-supporting policies have not started plants leaving. ”

So, what is Microsoft’s interest?

All major tech companies have ambitious goals to combat the climate crisis. This includes Google and Microsoft, each of which promises to reach a net zero carbon emission. They were also making progress. Each invests billions in wind and solar energy.

And then artificial intelligence has arrived. AI data centers require a large amount of electricity. Big Tech has found that he doesn’t reach his emissions targets without putting too much effort into his own hands.

“Microsoft will benefit from reliable clean energy for 20 years,” Dominguez said.

He says reopening the existing Three Mile Island facility will be faster and cheaper than building a brand new nuclear power plant. “It’s at least 10 times cheaper than building a new plant,” he said. “And I think we can get it in about three years. On the other hand, the last plant built (it took nearly ten years.”

But if you’re a high-tech company, what do you do if you don’t have the recently cited nuclear plant on hand? You develop new things. Just a few weeks after Microsoft’s announcement, Both Amazon and Google have announced major investments in nuclear power.

Google is already complementing its huge green energy investments with a new kind of nuclear investment called small modular reactors. “These are not the nuclear power plants yesterday, they have very large cooling towers,” said Michael Terrell, who leads Google’s decarbonization efforts. “These are much smaller facilities, but they are modular so you can stack them up to create a larger power plant.

He expects the first advanced nuclear reactor to be online by 2030. “And we’re not going to do just one nuclear reactor, but we want to buy it from a series of reactors that follow,” Terrell said.

Nuclear power is not perfect yet. still Generates waste that needs to be stored safely. However, unlike the sun and wind, nuclear power is always on. This is essential for these AI data centers.

That’s why Google has funded a company called Kairos Power to design and build this new generation of nuclear reactors. Kairos is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where uranium was processed for the first atomic bomb.

CEO Mike Laufer says his reactor does not use fuel rods. They use golf ball-sized fuel pebbles. Most are graphite and have small uranium nuclei. And each pebbles have the same power capacity as 4 tons of coal.

What is the carbon footprint compared to coal? “Zero,” Laufer said.

Kairos reactors run at lower power and lower pressures than traditional reactors. This means low risk.

Well, this is all great! But what is the catch?

“There’s only one problem with a small modular reactor. They don’t really exist,” said Professor Sharon Skassoni, a professor at George Washington University. She believes that a big tech company might be on her head. “I think they’ll find it takes too long and that it’s too expensive pretty quickly,” she said. “I think we’ll see how strong their commitment to clean up energy futures.”

“So you’re saying they might have to resort to something that burns (for the sake of power)?” I asked.

“I’m sure they’ll do that,” replied Squasoni.

“Do you think there’s a bit of high-tech bro’s overly confident?

“Ah, totally, totally!” she laughed.

Mike Laufer of Kairos admitted, “Yes, it’s really hard. I fully agree with everyone. But we’re starting it on a smaller scale and building it in the future.”

Joe Dominguez’s team is preparing Microsoft’s three-mile island, including renaming The Plant The Crane Clean Energy Center. And if AI is igniting the American nuclear renaissance, he says:

“Why do all new plants take so long and cost a lot more than projection?” I asked.

“The honest answer? We haven’t built them enough,” Dominguez said. “I don’t want to create a unique design. I want to do a kind of cookie cutter, one different design.”

“Does it well understand that governments and industry can get to the same designs more quickly and cheaper if you start repeating them over and over again?”

“That’s probably the most understood idea,” Dominguez said. “Both Republicans and Democrats understand. This is hard to say about anything! Everyone understands that when they build a common design, they build a bunch of them.”

“So you think you’ll get there?”

“i will do it.”

Google’s Michael Terrell agrees and believes his company will achieve its zero carbon goal by 2030. “But that’s something we work hard to achieve and we want to get there.”

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A story created by Mark Hudspeth. Editor: Remington Korper.

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