By songwut @ Adobe Stock
Nuclear power has been the red-headed stepchild of the power production industry for decades but has recently undergone a mini-renaissance with the opening of a new reactor at Plant Vogtle in Waynesboro, Georgia. But, if Big Tech gets its way, America is in for a lot more nuclear energy. The Wall Street Journal’s Jinjoo Lee reports:
Small modular nuclear reactors long seemed like moonshots with lots of promise but not enough commercial interest. That changed recently after tech giants with surging power needs for AI processing swooped in with announcements backing SMR projects.
Earlier this month, Google parent Alphabet said it signed a power purchase agreement with Kairos Power for an up-to-500-megawatt SMR project. Amazon said it would work with X-energy on a 320 MW project that is jointly backed by a utility in Washington state. These SMR projects won’t be built overnight. Both Google and Amazon expect their initial projects to come online by the 2030s at the earliest. Oracle is another company to watch: Chairman Larry Ellison said in an earnings call in September that the company is designing a 1 Gigawatt-plus data center with building permits for three SMR reactors.
SMRs come with the potential to solve some of nuclear energy’s biggest headaches: Cost, safety and time—at least, in theory. That is why tech companies’ backing is so crucial. The industry needs to test and learn before it can prove out the benefits.
What is an SMR?
A nuclear power plant creates energy by splitting atoms, a process that creates heat that then generates steam to generate electricity. Nuclear power plants typically use uranium-based fuel for this process. The process initially requires an external source of neutrons to split uranium atoms. Once the process starts, atoms start releasing heat, radiation and more neutrons as they get split—a chain reaction. Small modular reactors do the same thing but are produced in a factory. They are typically under 350 MW. Some can be as small as 1 to 10 MW.
Read more here.
If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.
