As demand for AI increases, so does the demand for solutions on how to power it. Big Tech is betting on nuclear energy but the move is raising concerns.
ADVERTISEMENTThree Mile Island, a US power plant infamous for a nuclear meltdown in 1979, is getting a restart and a rebrand to fuel artificial intelligence (AI) endeavours.
The reason behind this change in fortunes? None other than the multi-billion-euro tech behemoth, Microsoft.
Under a deal announced in September with power giant Constellation Energy, which owns part of the nuclear facility, Microsoft will use carbon-free energy from the plant to power its data centres.
To add to this agreement, Constellation Energy announced it will launch a rebrand of the island as the “Crane Clean Energy Center”.
“This agreement is a major milestone in Microsoft’s efforts to help decarbonise the grid in support of our commitment to become carbon negative,” Bobby Hollis, Microsoft’s Vice President of Energy, said in a statement, explaining the significance of this purchase as part of the company’s larger long-term energy goals.
It marks the beginning of what could be a renaissance for nuclear energy thanks to the soaring demand for power-hungry AI. In recent weeks, Big Tech giants Google and Amazon have both announced they will use mini nuclear reactors to power their data centres.
But why, when nuclear sites are increasingly being wound down, are they seeing a rebirth?
‘Relatively free energy’
Microsoft’s usage of nuclear energy on such a wide scale is part of an urgent push in the US toward renewable energy.
Graham Peaslee, professor emeritus of physics at the University of Notre Dame, emphasised the massive amount of power needed to fuel AI. He added that if the US wants to stay “in the lead in AI,” it will need significantly larger server farms, which require a lot more power.
“AI in the next century will be driven by these huge computer farms,” he said.
“The computers are getting smaller and smaller, but the fact is that they need a football-sized field building to hold all of them, and they need enough electricity from a nuclear power plant to run them all”.
The agreement is also an economical decision, Peaslee said. Building new plants could cost billions of dollars while restarting former plants is much more cost-efficient.
Peaslee speculated that other corporations would follow suit if Microsoft were successful, a prediction that is already being borne out by subsequent announcements from Google and Amazon.
“Once a nuclear plant is constructed, it’s relatively free energy,” he added.
The relaunching is set to have groundbreaking economic and environmental impacts. Experts expect Microsoft to benefit monumentally, as the success of the project would create enough power for 800,000 homes.
ADVERTISEMENTThe US would likely see thousands of direct and indirect jobs created, hundreds of millions of dollars in state tax revenue, and more than 800 megawatts of carbon-free electricity generated, according to thePennsylvania State Building & Construction Trades Council, whose members maintain and create the infrastructure in commercial and industrial industries.
Bid to calm concerns
In 1979, the plant in Pennsylvania was the site of the worst commercial nuclear incident in US history, when its Unit 2 reactor experienced a partial meltdown before going offline.
Though parts of the plant eventually recovered from the incident, there are still concerns regarding the safety of the plant and the practicality of Microsoft’s endeavours.
Though the affected Unit 2 reactor is still in the decommissioning phase, the deal with Microsoft would see the re-opening of the plant’s Unit 1 reactor, which operated safely and independently until 2019.
ADVERTISEMENTCharles McCombie was initially a front-end reactor specialist in the UK and Switzerland and is now a radioactive waste management expert. He believes the relaunching is a wise and sensible move for Microsoft and an excellent source of firm energy, or energy guaranteed to be available.
“[The] impact of Three Mile Island, technically and physically and health-wise, is vastly overestimated, particularly in the USA,” McCombie said. “Of course, anything that happens in America has a worldwide impact”.
However, nobody died in the partial meltdown and parts of the plant went on to operate successfully for decades to come, McCombie emphasised.
The US is not the only country moving forward in nuclear energy. McCombie classified nuclear energy as a positive “upward trend,” at the moment, one that countries all over the world – in the West, Asia, Africa, and South America – are following.
ADVERTISEMENTThese countries, he said, are all in the process of increasing their nuclear fleets for different reasons.
“The most important one [reason] from my point of view as a nuclear enthusiast, is the environmental part,” McCombie added. “Nuclear plants have finally been recognised by the European Union and by the governments as being clean – a big, important word”.
McCombie also touched on the gigawatt challenge. Data centre demand in the US will double by 2030 to accommodate the power needs of AI, according to data from the US Data Center.
In other words, the rapid expansion of data centre capacity needed to power AI means that the US must provide 35-gigawatt of power to fulfill soaring demand.
ADVERTISEMENTIs Europe playing catch-up?
McCombie’s observations highlight a larger cross-continental conversation about the role of nuclear energy in Europe over the last year, as well as more widespread concerns about nuclear waste.
In March, Europe saw its first Nuclear Energy Summit, where 14 of the EU’s 27 heads of government gathered to discuss the future of nuclear energy and a potential re-incorporation of nuclear energy operations.
During the convention, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton proposed the EU Nuclear Technologies Act, a piece of legislation that would attempt to proactively develop this sector in Europe.
Though the EU must overcome financial barriers and other issues, the summit was a progressive and promising beginning for more intentional steps towards widespread firm energy in Europe.
ADVERTISEMENTThe European Economic and Social Committee held a conference on October 17 to assess the latest scientific developments regarding nuclear energy and waste and also discuss allowing local communities to “have their say”. Conversations are ongoing.
McCombie said the appetite for nuclear power has “massively increased” over the last few years, indicating that the US will not be the only player on the world stage of nuclear-powered data centres in the future.
One example, he said, is Finland, a country making advances in radioactive waste disposal. In 2021 alone, nuclear power amounted to 33 percent of Finland’s total electricity generation, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
“Geological disposal facilities” are currently being implemented to deal with the waste generated, he added. This includes sites like Onkalo, a vault cut 450 m deep in the bedrock of a Finnish island where used radioactive rods will be housed for the next 10,000 years.
ADVERTISEMENTIt remains a waiting game to see if the rest of Europe will follow suit with nuclear energy should the project succeed and perhaps get up to par with nuclear-powered AI.