New nuclear deals are good for technology and the power grid

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Headlines over the last month have cropped up about technology companies signing various deals with companies in the nuclear power space. First Constellation Energy and Microsoft announced a deal to restart Unit 1 at Three Mile Island. Amazon also recently announced several deals in the small nuclear space, totaling more than $500 million. That same week Google announced a deal with nuclear company Kairos Power to purchase power from multiple small modular nuclear reactors that the company is developing.

As artificial intelligence technology continues to develop, there will be a major increase in power demand from data centers. Tech companies are trying to get ahead of this and secure power now for facilities that they will be building in the near future.

The deal between Kairos Power and Google is particularly notable as it is the first corporate agreement to buy power from a small modular nuclear reactor. One of the barriers to buildout for this technology has been uncertainty surrounding securing a reliable customer base for the power. On top of the difficult and expensive regulatory process behind developing new nuclear reactors in the United States, this lack of a committed customer base has been a major problem for companies developing advanced nuclear reactors.

In an announcement of the deal, Google Senior Director for Energy and Climate Michael Terrell said, "The grid needs new electricity sources to support AI technologies that are powering major scientific advances, improving services for businesses and customers, and driving national competitiveness and economic growth."

Power demand in the United States generally increases very slightly year over year, even decreasing slightly in some years. This has been true since the early 2000s. Now that data center demand from AI is rising rapidly, this will no longer be the case. This is one reason why new reliable baseload power will be needed in the near future. Agreements to purchase power from emerging small modular nuclear plants help to ensure new capacity will arrive to meet this new demand.

Kairos Power is a promising prospect in the advanced nuclear space. Their Hermes reactor is the first advanced reactor design to be permitted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (most nuclear reactors are cooled by regular boiling or pressurized water, but Hermes and other advanced reactors use more exotic materials to cool their radioactive fuel). Kairos Power broke ground on its Hermes demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in August, and has since begun construction on the facility that will manufacture the reactor's molten salt coolant.

The deal with Google intends to bring the first Kairos Power reactor online by 2030, with additional reactors coming online through 2035. Combined, these should amount to 500 MW of new power.

This and other recent announcements from tech and nuclear power companies, including utilities that own existing nuclear sites, show the beginning of a promising future. Data centers and their increasing power demands will require planning and forethought, and these deals are the first signs that the need for new power is being considered and investments are being made accordingly.

A version of this article first appeared on Catalyst.