3 mile island nuclear facility bto restart. Provide 100% of output to Microsoft to power AI

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Polds4OSU

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Pennsylvania’s dormant Three Mile Island nuclear plant would be brought back to life to feed the voracious energy needs of Microsoft under an unprecedented deal announced Friday in which the tech giant would buy 100 percent of its power for 20 years.

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Pennsylvania’s dormant Three Mile Island nuclear plant would be brought back to life to feed the voracious energy needs of Microsoft under an unprecedented deal announced Friday in which the tech giant would buy 100 percent of its power for 20 years.
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Both Google and Amazon announced this week they will begin investing in and building Small Nuclear power stations to power their Data centers and Artificial Intelligence centers across the US to take their Data center Power strains off the Commercial Grid.

Both companies praised Nuclear as clean and carbon free sources of energy.
 
Polds4OSU said:
Both Google and Amazon announced this week they will begin investing in and building Small Nuclear power stations to power their Data centers and Artificial Intelligence centers across the US to take their Data center Power strains off the Commercial Grid.

Both companies praised Nuclear as clean and carbon free sources of energy.
Click to expand...
Oh boy, I wonder how much infrastructure funding will come from state and local tax monies. I’m not allowed to write off my whole house generator even though we both need power for CPAP etc.. Here in Oklahoma Walmart and Bass Pro surehad a lot of local funding for infrastructure, and put small business’s out of business. Make the pay every dime. They’re expanding to store more information on everyone of us. IMO we are all the product they’re selling.
 
Polds4OSU said:
Both Google and Amazon announced this week they will begin investing in and building Small Nuclear power stations to power their Data centers and Artificial Intelligence centers across the US to take their Data center Power strains off the Commercial Grid.

Both companies praised Nuclear as clean and carbon free sources of energy.
Click to expand...
It'd be nice to see this find it's way to Oklahoma for some added fuel diversity here locally.
 
So this....not particularly nuclear....is where most all new power gen is going. And it's a boom market right now. Transformers have 4 year lead times.....gas turbines are selling way faster than they can be made. The amount of power used by these new data centers is staggering. I know of a single development shop trying to build 1.5 GW, 3 GW, and 6 GW load centers all with dedicated nat gas generation and thats just the projects in and around DFW. To put that in perspective to a mostly Okie crowd all of OG&E's load combined is +/- 7 GW. It's great that they are turning to nuke but the problem is it's too slow to get approved and build. Microsoft with govt help and a gozillion dollars can maybe pull it off but to get a new build permit through get the equipment designed and built is going to be closer to a decade than not and by then you are late to the party. They are also skirting environmental regs and corporate pledges. One party that approached us wants us to build and own the generation which they finance and have a guaranteed take off agreement for the power (read they really own it) so they can get around normal air permitting processes by making the power simply for the facility as opposed to part of the bulk electric system and also keep the "carbon free" corporate pledge because it's not them that is emitting its us. They can't supply with renewables/battery back up because it isn't a consistent source so build a thermal plant. Essentially hiring a hit man and saying you didn't kill anyone. The largest one wants 100% dedicated generation with redudancy of 30%.....so 7.8 GW of thermal generation....in one fence....for one load.... See the note above more power than OG&E needs in one fence. There is hundreds of these being developed between 300 MW and 10 GW. If power generation is a climate change risk data centers could quickly be the biggest culprit. Technology isn't going to slow down.

TLDR: Data centers use as much power as major cities all under one roof and they will have to have their own gen that isn't renewable.
 
Donnyboy said:
So this....not particularly nuclear....is where most all new power gen is going. And it's a boom market right now. Transformers have 4 year lead times.....gas turbines are selling way faster than they can be made. The amount of power used by these new data centers is staggering. I know of a single development shop trying to build 1.5 GW, 3 GW, and 6 GW load centers all with dedicated nat gas generation and thats just the projects in and around DFW. To put that in perspective to a mostly Okie crowd all of OG&E's load combined is +/- 7 GW. It's great that they are turning to nuke but the problem is it's too slow to get approved and build. Microsoft with govt help and a gozillion dollars can maybe pull it off but to get a new build permit through get the equipment designed and built is going to be closer to a decade than not and by then you are late to the party. They are also skirting environmental regs and corporate pledges. One party that approached us wants us to build and own the generation which they finance and have a guaranteed take off agreement for the power (read they really own it) so they can get around normal air permitting processes by making the power simply for the facility as opposed to part of the bulk electric system and also keep the "carbon free" corporate pledge because it's not them that is emitting its us. They can't supply with renewables/battery back up because it isn't a consistent source so build a thermal plant. Essentially hiring a hit man and saying you didn't kill anyone. The largest one wants 100% dedicated generation with redudancy of 30%.....so 7.8 GW of thermal generation....in one fence....for one load.... See the note above more power than OG&E needs in one fence. There is hundreds of these being developed between 300 MW and 10 GW. If power generation is a climate change risk data centers could quickly be the biggest culprit. Technology isn't going to slow down.

TLDR: Data centers use as much power as major cities all under one roof and they will have to have their own gen that isn't renewable.
Click to expand...
What kind of local infrastructure are they wanting tax money to pay for, if you know.
 
Donnyboy said:
So this....not particularly nuclear....is where most all new power gen is going. And it's a boom market right now. Transformers have 4 year lead times.....gas turbines are selling way faster than they can be made. The amount of power used by these new data centers is staggering. I know of a single development shop trying to build 1.5 GW, 3 GW, and 6 GW load centers all with dedicated nat gas generation and thats just the projects in and around DFW. To put that in perspective to a mostly Okie crowd all of OG&E's load combined is +/- 7 GW. It's great that they are turning to nuke but the problem is it's too slow to get approved and build. Microsoft with govt help and a gozillion dollars can maybe pull it off but to get a new build permit through get the equipment designed and built is going to be closer to a decade than not and by then you are late to the party. They are also skirting environmental regs and corporate pledges. One party that approached us wants us to build and own the generation which they finance and have a guaranteed take off agreement for the power (read they really own it) so they can get around normal air permitting processes by making the power simply for the facility as opposed to part of the bulk electric system and also keep the "carbon free" corporate pledge because it's not them that is emitting its us. They can't supply with renewables/battery back up because it isn't a consistent source so build a thermal plant. Essentially hiring a hit man and saying you didn't kill anyone. The largest one wants 100% dedicated generation with redudancy of 30%.....so 7.8 GW of thermal generation....in one fence....for one load.... See the note above more power than OG&E needs in one fence. There is hundreds of these being developed between 300 MW and 10 GW. If power generation is a climate change risk data centers could quickly be the biggest culprit. Technology isn't going to slow down.

TLDR: Data centers use as much power as major cities all under one roof and they will have to have their own gen that isn't renewable.
Click to expand...
I'm betting these take off huge... China and Russia are the only countries commercially producing these now ...but US, Japan and Korea are about to get in this game

Right now China can build one of these small reactors in 3-5 years per unit


Small nuclear reactors can be transported in a variety of ways, including container trucks and semitractor-trailers:

Microreactors
These reactors can be transported in a container truck and are small enough to be buried underground. They can be as small as two home water heaters and weigh less than 40 tons. Microreactors can generate up to 20 megawatts of thermal energy and can be used to power industrial applications or generate electricity.

Small modular reactors (SMRs)
These reactors are factory-assembled and transported as a unit to their installation location. They are about one-third the size of a traditional nuclear power reactor and have a power capacity of up to 300 megawatts.

eVinci Microreactor
This reactor is designed to be transported and deployed quickly on-site. It can produce 5 megawatts of electricity and its core is designed to run for at least eight years before refueling.
 
Polds4OSU said:
I'm betting these take off huge... China and Russia are the only countries commercially producing these now ...but US, Japan and Korea are about to get in this game

Right now China can build one of these small reactors in 3-5 years per unit


Small nuclear reactors can be transported in a variety of ways, including container trucks and semitractor-trailers:

Microreactors
These reactors can be transported in a container truck and are small enough to be buried underground. They can be as small as two home water heaters and weigh less than 40 tons. Microreactors can generate up to 20 megawatts of thermal energy and can be used to power industrial applications or generate electricity.

Small modular reactors (SMRs)
These reactors are factory-assembled and transported as a unit to their installation location. They are about one-third the size of a traditional nuclear power reactor and have a power capacity of up to 300 megawatts.

eVinci Microreactor
This reactor is designed to be transported and deployed quickly on-site. It can produce 5 megawatts of electricity and its core is designed to run for at least eight years before refueling.
Click to expand...
It should take off huge. The US will have to completely overhaul its regulatory process to make it feasible. It’s just too slow. Nuclear power is horribly underutilized
 
Donnyboy said:
It should take off huge. The US will have to completely overhaul its regulatory process to make it feasible. It’s just too slow. Nuclear power is horribly underutilized
Click to expand...
I work in a space that sells a couple hundred million $$ a year to the nuke industry

It is our fastest growing dept in both revenue and people in 2024
 

Micro nuclear reactors are being built that can deliver 5MW of power for up to 100 months, producing a staggering 1.2 petawatt-hours of energy​


Nuclear power is increasingly being recognized for its potential to revolutionize energy supply in data centers, a necessity as artificial intelligence continues to drive demand.

Companies like Oracle and Microsoft have both begun investigating nuclear energy (as has former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates), with Microsoft inking an agreement to purchase power from the infamous Three Mile Island reactor.


Micro nuclear reactors are also set to provide clean, safe, and reliable energy to meet the increasing demands of data centers and other industries. We previously wrote how Nano Nuclear Energy is on track to have its first commercial microreactors ready by the early 2030s, with prototypes expected as soon as 2027.

To the moon!​

Now, details have surfaced about Westinghouse's eVinci microreactor, after the company revealed it had submitted its Preliminary Safety Design Report (PSDR) to the Department of Energy’s National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) and in doing so is the first reactor developer to reach this milestone.


“The completion of the PSDR for the eVinci test reactor is an important step toward enabling a micro reactor developer to perform a test in our DOME facility,” said Brad Tomer, acting director of NRIC.

“As a national DOE program and part of INL, the nation’s nuclear energy research laboratory, NRIC is committed to working with private companies such as Westinghouse to perform testing and accelerate the development of advanced nuclear technologies that will provide clean energy solutions for the US.”

NRIC, a key initiative under the DOE, is dedicated to fast-tracking the development and deployment of advanced nuclear technologies like the eVinci microreactor. Its mission includes establishing four new experimental facilities and two large-scale reactor test beds by 2028, with plans to complete two advanced technology experiments by 2030.

The eVinci microreactor, which Westinghouse says “has very few moving parts, working essentially as a battery,” could be used to provide reliable electricity and heating for remote communities, universities, mining operations, industrial centers, data centers, and defense facilities - and, the company says, even on the lunar surface and beyond.
 

Amazon Turns To Nuclear Power To Meet Data Centre Electricity Needs​


E-commerce giant %Amazon (NASDAQ: $AMZN ) has become the latest technology company to turn to NuclearPower to help meet its growing data center electricity needs.

The Seattle-based company says it has signed agreements to develop and draw energy from small modular nuclear reactors.


Amazon’s small modular nuclear reactor project will be based in Washington State and developed by X-Energy. Financial terms of the deal were not made public.

However, under the agreement, Amazon will have the right to purchase electricity from four nuclear reactors to help power its data centres that run artificial intelligence (A.I.) applications.

Eventually Amazon could draw power from as many as eight small modular nuclear reactors that, combined, can produce enough power to run 770,000 U.S. homes.

Other technology companies are also turning to nuclear power to generate the electricity needed to run A.I. applications and models through data centers.

Google parent company %Alphabet (NASDAQ: $GOOGL ) has announced plans to also use small modular nuclear reactors to meet its future power needs.

%Microsoft (NASDAQ: $MSFT ) has said it wants to restart a dormant nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania to power its A.I. projects.


In March of this year, Amazon purchased a nuclear-powered data centre from %TalenEnergy (NASDAQ: $TLN ).

U.S. data centre power use is expected to triple by 2030, driven by demand for A.I., according to investment bank %GoldmanSachs (NYSE: $GS ).

Small modular nuclear reactors are built in factories rather than onsite like bigger nuclear reactors, making them cheaper to construct. They also do not produce greenhouse gas emissions and can be set-up near the location where the power they generate is to be sent.

However, critics say the small reactors are too expensive to achieve economies of scale, and that they will produce long-lasting radioactive waste that is potentially harmful.
 

The return of the nuclear age — Amazon reveals it is also investing in nuclear energy​

Just days after Google announced it would be investing in nuclear energy to fuel its AI data centers, Amazon has confirmed it, too, is on board with nuclear.

The company has announced several of agreements and investments focusing on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in an effort to clean up its energy supply and address the growing demand for power as a result of the AI boom.


Although Amazon still remains committed to other clean energy sources, it stated nuclear forms an important part of a mix thanks to its proven reliability.

Amazon hedges its bets on nuclear​

“Nuclear is a safe source of carbon-free energy that can help power our operations and meet the growing demands of our customers, while helping us progress toward our Climate Pledge commitment to be net-zero carbon across our operations by 2040," AWS CEO Matt Garman commented.

“Our agreements will encourage the construction of new nuclear technologies that will generate energy for decades to come.”

The new agreements include a partnership with Energy Northwest to develop reactors that are set to generate 320 megawatts in the first phase, with the potential to expand to 960 megawatts – the equivalent of around 770,000 homes.

Another agreement with Dominion Energy to explore an SMR project in Virginia could provide at least 300 megawatts of power in the region, which is establishing itself as a tech hub and could see demand rise by a staggering 85% in the next 15 years.


Amazon will also invest in X-energy, a company that develops SMR technology, to support over five gigawatts of nuclear projects.

Besides the sustainability credentials, Amazon is also keen to point out that its projects will support around 1,000 temporary construction roles and 100 permanent operational roles for the Energy Northwest Project alone.

This is on top of the company’s previously announcement to co-locate a data center facility next to a Talen Energy nuclear plant for directly provided carbon-free energy.
 
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