Google goes nuclear in new deal to power AI
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Google announced a deal on Monday to purchase energy from small nuclear reactors that the startup Kairos Power plans to start bringing online in the U.S. by 2030.
Why it matters: It's Google's first nuclear foray as the tech giant — and its peers — hunt for zero-carbon power to fuel energy-thirsty AI data centers.
- Google says it's the world's first corporate agreement to buy power from multiple small modular reactors.
Driving the news: If successful, it will bring 500 new megawatts of power to U.S. grids, with the first SMR targeted to come online by 2030 and more through 2035, it said.
- The structure of the deal — an "order book" of reactors rather than a project-by-project approach — will help lower costs and commercialize the tech faster for everyone, Google argues.
- "This agreement helps accelerate a new technology to meet energy needs cleanly and reliably, and unlock the full potential of AI for everyone," Michael Terrell, Google's senior director for energy and climate, said in a blog post.
- It adds to Google's more than 115 existing agreements for power from renewables and storage, which total over 14 gigawatts of capacity, he told reporters in a briefing Monday.
Reality check: Despite some progress, the SMR industry has yet to successfully commercialize and scale the tech.
- Startups have faced financial hurdles, crystallized with the collapse of an Idaho project last year.
- And new reactors would need to obtain federal construction and operating licenses, among other approvals.
The big picture: Tech companies are increasingly looking at nuclear energy — in various forms — as they face pressure to prevent the AI surge from worsening climate change.
- Monday's announcement comes weeks after Constellation Energy unveiled a $1.6 billion plan to restart a reactor at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island plant in 2028.
- Microsoft has a 20-year power purchase deal for the envisioned 835 megawatts that project would send to the regional grid.
- Amazon, meanwhile, has an agreement with Talen Energy to someday power an AWS data center campus adjacent a separate existing plant in Pennsylvania.
State of play: California-based Kairos has Energy Department backing, and has begun constructing a demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
- The firm is using a "pebble" fuel system combined with molten salt coolant — a process backers call safe and relatively simple, enabling lower costs.
- Kairos envisions commercial-scale SMRs in the 75 megawatt range.
What we don't know: Google and Kairos didn't provide any information about the costs or financial structure of the deal.
What we're watching: Other potential Google forays into nuclear, which Terrell didn't rule out.
The bottom line: "We believe that nuclear energy has a critical role to play in supporting our clean growth and helping to deliver on the progress of AI," Terrell said.
