Architect’s rendering of Kairos’ Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor facility (July 2024)
As Google’s AI energy needs skyrocket, the company recently inked a deal with Kairos Power, a nuclear power company started in 2016, to meet Google’s growing energy needs. The deal between the two companies includes plans to bring a small modular reactor online by 2030 and produce up to 500MW by 2035, according to a Google blog statement, the approximate annual consumption of 360,000 average American households. This deal comes as other tech giants such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle make similar moves, investing heavily in nuclear startups or bringing back old reactors online as they seek to power their data centers.
The already substantial power demands in hosting large-scale data servers have soared to unprecedented levels due to AI coming onto the scene and rapidly proliferating across industries. As advances in AI and other tech are made, the demand for energy shows no signs of slowing down, even if efficiency is improved. As the power demand grows and the world moves towards green energy, these tech giants have determined that going nuclear is the best way to grow sustainably.
The sudden explosion of investment in nuclear energy by American-based tech companies is a promising step in shifting attitudes in the United States about nuclear power. Renewables like wind and solar still have limitations due to the intermittent availability of power they provide. Nuclear energy can solve that problem by providing a steady supply known as “baseload.”
Even more promising is the cutting-edge nature of the type of nuclear technology Google has invested in. Small Modular Reactors are miniaturized versions of conventional nuclear reactors with smaller outputs and are easier to produce, assemble, and use. SMRs integrate more readily into existing power grids and pose minimal pollution dangers. This is encouraging from a national security standpoint as well, provided nothing goes wrong. SMRs are likely to be the future of nuclear power. Currently, there are only three operational SMRs in the world, with two in China and Russia, while the third, a test reactor, is in Japan.
The core module of China’s Linglong One, the world’s first operational SMR
Though SMRs present an option to build out nuclear energy generation capacity without investing as much time and resources as necessary to build a full-sized power plant, there is still a long way to go before the technology comes online to begin constructing them at scale. Commercial deployment of SMRs is not expected until the early 2030s, with projects like one abandoned by NuScale failing due to high upfront CAPEX costs. Kathleen L. Barrón, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Constellation Energy, the largest nuclear plant operator in the U.S., noted in an interview with CNBC that the window of opportunity for adding SMRs to existing power plants will open when state governments introduce policies that support these projects — similar to the policies that have helped incentivize wind turbine projects.
As Google and other energy-hungry tech companies step up, they may also fill this need for capital to take the new nuclear technology to the next level.
Whether looking at SMRs or more conventional, larger-scale nuclear power plants, lowering carbon emissions is undeniably an important goal. However, it may raise security questions around sourcing the needed fuel. In 2023, U.S. uranium imports from friendly countries like Canada and Australia were 49% of foreign imports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, with the other 51% coming from countries susceptible to interference by Russia or China, such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Namibia. The U.S. will have to keep an eye on the flow of these supplies to ensure the security of the green transition.
The war in Ukraine has driven the United States away from Russia, with our country prohibiting Russian uranium imports in May of 2024. Though Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are good targets to build the uranium supply chain, the U.S. might make a broad and concerted effort to compete with Russian and Chinese interests in both countries.
Recognizing the pressing needs of the nuclear industry, the Biden administration has enacted several measures to secure an enriched uranium supply chain and fund the development of SMRs. The ADVANCE Act directs the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reduce licensing and application fees for reactors, better staff the agency for the review process, and includes measures specifically focused on microreactors.
Though these are necessary steps, they do not fully address the inherent burden of the reactor permitting process. To ensure SMR projects are on track to deploy by 2030, the U.S. Government, and particularly the NRC, needs to provide sustained support for the industry by reforming the permitting process, reducing regulation at the state level, and ensuring that startups working on SMRs have access to a stable fuel supply chain.
Any pre-AI U.S. and world energy consumption projections are no longer realistic. We are in a whole new ball game. Some of the country’s most successful companies have put their faith in nuclear energy to meet the significant increase in power demand, and the United States would be wise to follow suit.
Source: www.forbes.com…