The energy footprint of insatiable artificial intelligence systems threatens to overflow the ability of data centers. The need to have cheap energy has generated a renewed interest in nuclear energy and specifically by small modular reactors (SMR).
Nvidia’s risk capital arm, Nventures, has joined Bill Gates and HD Hyundai this week in a 650 million dollars financing round that injected effective in a startup called Terrapower, which aims to make these micorreactors a reality to feed industrial facilities and respond to energy needs that will be duplicated in 2030, according to the latest report of the International Energy Agency.
Founded in 2006 by the co-founder of Microsoft, Terrapower has been developing an SMR reactor design that promises to relieve the explosive increase in consumption that can even threaten the global sustainability of the planet. Developed in collaboration with the demonstration project of advanced reactors of the US Department of Energy, the Terrapower Natriat Plant in Wyoming will have a reactor of 345 megawatts backed by a storage system with a capacity gigavatio.
SMR reactors, underway
The works in the non -nuclear parts of the project began last year, but there is still time before Terrapower sodium reactor technology achieves nuclear fission. The company has not yet obtained regulatory approval for the project and does not expect the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to authorize it until next year.
Despite the bureaucracy and that SMRs are not yet proven, Technological giants are betting on nuclear energy. Almost all cloud suppliers and hyperscalars have announced some type of initiative in this area. AWS collaborates with X-Energy and Dominion Energy; Google bets on Kairos; Microsoft works to revitalize Three-Mile Island, and Oracle has announced plans to display at least three SMR reactors with more than one gigavatio of combined capacity.
Nvidia, the largest world giant in the supply of accelerators for AI, does not want to be left behind: “As IA continues to transform industries, nuclear energy will become an increasingly vital energy source to boost these capacities”said Mohamed Siddeek, director of Nventures, in the announcement of investment in Terrapower.
The Executive points out that Terrapower Nuclear Reactor Technologies offer innovative and carbon -free solutions to meet global energy needs, “At the same time the environmental impact against other types of solutions”. The detractors, however, point out that SMR reactors They may not be economically viable And the security problem of nuclear fission and waste is always behind.
The startup backed by Bill Gates hopes to obtain the regulatory approval to advance with its first plant in Wyoming next year, but it is not expected that its reactor will export energy until 2030.
