Google backs new nuclear plants to power AI

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Google will back the construction of seven small nuclear-power reactors in the U.S., a first-of-its-kind deal that aims to help feed the tech company’s growing appetite for electricity to power AI and jump-start a U.S. nuclear revival.

Under the deal’s terms, Google committed to buying power generated by seven reactors to be built by nuclear-energy startup Kairos Power. The agreement targets adding 500 megawatts of nuclear power starting at the end of the decade, the companies said Monday. The arrangement is the first that would underpin the commercial construction in the U.S.

of small modular nuclear reactors. Many say the technology is the future of the domestic nuclear-power industry, potentially enabling faster and less costly construction by building smaller reactors instead of behemoth bespoke plants. “The end goal here is 24/7, carbon-free energy," said Michael Terrell, senior director for energy and climate at Alphabet’s Google.

“We feel like in order to meet goals around round-the-clock clean energy, you’re going to need to have technologies that complement wind and solar and lithium-ion storage." The nuclear-power industry’s fortunes are increasingly getting hitched to Big Tech. Power demand is rising in parts of the U.S. for the first time in years, much of it driven by the need to build more data centers for AI.

That has sent the tech industry on the hunt for massive amounts of energy. Last month, Constellation Energy and Microsoft struck a deal to restart the undamaged reactor at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island, the site of the country’s worst nuclear-power accident. Earlier this year, Amazon purchased a data center at another Pennsylvania nuclear plant.