AI centers are increasing demand of electricity. Nuclear is low carbon and more reliable than wind and solar.
" The deal would help enable a revival of Unit 1 of the five-decades-old facility in Pennsylvania that was retired in 2019 due to economic reasons. Unit 2, which had the meltdown, will not be restarted.
Constellation plans to spend about $1.6 billion to revive the plant, which it expects to come online by 2028."
And Oracle plans to use 3 SMR’s for their new data center. Wowzers.
At the time it shut down, TMI Unit 1 was licensed to operate until 2034. As reported in the following link, Constellation Energy will apply to extend the license until 2054.
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Meanwhile, Holtec is progressing with plans to restart the currently shuttered Palisades plant in Michigan. Palisades was shut down in 2022.
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Not to be outdone, NextEra Energy is evaluating restart of the Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa, which was shut down in 2020 after a wind storm damaged a cooling tower.
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Finally, earlier this year, Amazon Web Services (AWS) purchased a data center located adjacent to the currently operating Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
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It is interesting how things have changed in just a few years. If Constellation, Entergy (previous owner of Palisades), and NextEra had foreseen the increasing demand for computing power, they never would have shut down their plants in the first place.
_ Pete
So SMRs are not hot today. Restart of old 1970s reactors is the new hot nuclear topic. Which is the cheaper option and which can be accomplished the fastest?
Jaak
Because SMRs are new, getting them permitted is likely to take longer. More questions to answer, etc. Previously permitted old reactors should be less risky for regulators and faster. But of course once SMRs are running we hope that changes and they become faster and easier.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently issued a ruling that could impact these sort of power purchase agreements between tech companies that operate large data centers and the power companies that supply the electricity.
FERC rejected a proposed agreement between Talen Energy, which owns the Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, and Amazon Web Services, to increase the amount of power supplied to a data center. This has caused a sell-off in the stocks associated with some of these companies.
_ Pete
FERC rejected the Amazon/Talen proposal because it was “behind the meter”, i.e., they would avoid grid taxes. IIRC, the Microsoft deal is not behind the meter.
DB2