Amazon is investing $500M toward nuclear power to meet the rising energy demands of its data centers and artificial intelligence initiatives. Yesterday's announcement comes two days after Google unveiled plans to purchase nuclear power and less than a month after Microsoft said it would reopen the Three Mile Island plant—home to the worst nuclear accident in US history—to fuel its AI efforts.
Nuclear power accounts for 19% of US electricity generation and comes from energy released when the nucleus of a heavy atom splits into lighter atoms. While expensive and potentially hazardous, proponents pitch nuclear power (see 101) as a clean alternative to greenhouse gas-emitting energy sources like coal, oil, and gas. Energy-intensive generative AI applications and data centers are expected to account for roughly 9% of total US power consumption by 2030.
Amazon and Google are investing in small modular reactors, which are cheaper and easier to build than traditional nuclear reactors and generate up to 300 megawatts of power or about one-third the amount of power of a traditional reactor. Only two SMRs currently operate in the world, in China and Russia.
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