Not so long ago, many shied away from the idea of expanding nuclear energy capabilities. Accidents at Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant generated many fears.
However, with data center capacity expanding significantly in the United States, more power is a necessity. And, with concerns about the stressors on current energy grids, nuclear is being considered a clean and scalable power source to fuel these data centers, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report.
“The growing traction for nuclear energy is logical, as its advantages—sustainability, scalability, reliability and efficiency—align with the priorities of the world’s largest data center operators,” the Cushman & Wakefield authors added.
The report explained that the U.S. government is lending its support to this endeavor by issuing executive orders to expedite reactor licensing, streamline testing, and increase domestic fuel production. The government has also set the goal of ten large reactors under construction by 2030, with a capacity of 300 gigawatts by 2050.
The authors pointed out that federal support has led to “significant investment from private equity, venture capital and leading players in the nuclear energy, technology and data center industries.”
The entities involved include:
- Constellation Energy and Microsoft, who are partnering to start the former Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 generator by 2027, are adding more than 800 megawatts of energy to the grid.
- Google and Kairos Power; the latter will build and operate reactor plants to power Google’s data centers, reaching a capacity of 500 MW by 2035.
- Amazon and X-energy, with Amazon investing $500 million in the power company to develop a four-unit, 320MW project in partnership with Central Washington’s Energy Northwest. The project will eventually expand to 12 units, issuing 960 MW.
The Cushman & Wakefield authors concluded that the positive shift to a formerly negative-seeming power source provides a “unique opportunity for the commercial real estate industry to play a pivotal role in enabling the nuclear renaissance and the infrastructure needed to support it.”
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