Image: © Khairil/Stock.adobe.com
The search giant will purchase small reactors to provide energy that will enable the growth of energy-guzzling AI technologies.
Google has signed a corporate agreement to purchase nuclear energy from small modular reactors (SMRs) to be developed by Kairos Power in the US. The search giant claimed this deal will “accelerate the clean energy transition across the US”.
According to Google, Kairos will bring its first SMR online “quickly and safely” by 2030, with more reactors to be deployed by 2035. “Overall, this deal will enable up to 500MW of new 24/7 carbon-free power to US electricity grids and help more communities benefit from clean and affordable nuclear power,” said Michael Terrell, Google’s senior director for energy and climate. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
The move by Google and other tech companies to find more and bigger sources of energy to power their data centres is in large part due to the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. AI models require huge computing power. An industry report estimates that the proportion of power used for AI in data centres globally will grow to 10pc next year, up from about 2pc this year.
Google’s latest environmental report released earlier this year showed that its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have grown by nearly 50pc compared to 2019 levels.
“Overall, our total GHG emissions increased by 13pc [year over year] – highlighting the challenge of reducing emissions while compute intensity increases and we grow our technical infrastructure investment to support this AI transition,” Google said at the time.
“Predicting the future environmental impact of AI is complex and evolving, and our historical trends likely don’t fully capture AI’s future trajectory.”
In announcing the agreement with Kairos, Terrell said that nuclear power offers a reliable energy source in contrast to variable renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.
“The grid needs new electricity sources to support AI technologies that are powering major scientific advances, improving services for businesses and customers, and driving national competitiveness and economic growth,” Terrell said.
“This agreement helps accelerate a new technology to meet energy needs cleanly and reliably and unlock the full potential of AI for everyone.”
Kairos Power was founded in 2016 with the goal of developing “innovative nuclear technology”. The company only secured permission to build a test reactor in December last year. The reactor is called Hermes and will be based in Tennessee. In February, the US Department of Energy agreed to provide up to $303m to help build Hermes.
It is possible that Google’s SMRs will face delays. The completion date for Hermes has already slipped to 2027 in the time since permission to build was granted, according to an article in MIT Technology Review. The issue of sourcing uranium was also highlighted in this article. After Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, the US banned uranium imports from Russia and now has just three years’ supply left. Kairos says it is working with a European consortium to source uranium.
Supporters of nuclear power argue it is needed to keep up with increasing energy demands in a sustainable way because it is a low-carbon solution. However, it is not renewable because nuclear fuels such as uranium are a finite material mined from the ground.
Those who are against the use of nuclear power argue that it is expensive and unsafe, giving the examples of nuclear disasters, and produces radioactive waste that can be damaging to human health and the environment.
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