Google inks nuclear deal for next-generation reactors

Illustration: The Verge
 

Google plans to buy electricity from next-generation nuclear reactors. It announced the deal yesterday, which it says is the world’s first corporate agreement to purchase electricity from advanced small modular reactors (SMRs) that are still under development.

Google inked the deal with engineering company Kairos Power, which plans to get its first SMR up and running by 2030. Google agreed to purchase electricity from “multiple” reactors that would be built through 2035.

Google needs a lot more clean energy to meet its climate goals while pursuing its AI ambitions. New nuclear technologies are still unproven at scale, but the hope is that they can provide carbon pollution-free electricity while solving some of the problems that come with traditional nuclear power plants.

Back in 2020, Google set a goal of running on carbon-free energy around the clock by 2030. It also committed to slashing its planet-heating pollution in half by 2030 compared to a 2019 baseline. And yet, since 2019, its total greenhouse gas emissions have grown by 48 percent, according to its latest environmental report.

“Obviously, the trajectory of AI investments has added to the scale of the task needed,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in an interview with Nikkei earlier this month. “We are now looking at additional investments, be it solar, and evaluating technologies like small modular nuclear reactors, etc.”

Other big tech companies with climate goals are trying to solve the same problem with nuclear energy. In March, Amazon Web Services announced its purchase of a data center campus powered by a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. Microsoft signed an agreement in September to help revive and purchase power from the shuttered Three Mile Island plant. 

What sets Google apart with this deal is that it’s turning to next-generation reactors rather than traditional nuclear power plants. SMRs are roughly one-tenth to one-quarter the size in comparison. Their size and modular design are supposed to make them cheaper and easier to build and site than their larger predecessors. And unlike solar and wind energy, which fluctuate with the weather and time of day, nuclear power plants can generate electricity around the clock. Even with new reactor designs, however, there are still environmental and health concerns when it comes to mining and enriching uranium for reactors and storing radioactive waste.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission certified a design for a small modular reactor for the first time last year. Experts tell The Verge they expect the first SMRs to connect to US power grids in the early 2030s at the earliest, and big tech’s interest in nuclear energy seems to be giving the industry a boost.

Google says its deal with Kairos Power would eventually help bring up to 500MW of carbon-free energy to power grids in the US. Kairos broke ground on its first demonstration reactor in Tennessee in July.

“Having an agreement for multiple deployments is important to accelerate the commercialization of advanced nuclear energy by demonstrating the technical and market viability,” Jeff Olson, Kairos Power vice president of business development and finance, said in a press release.