The nuclear energy limit for data centers: How does it come about?

In the debate about using nuclear reactors to power future data centers, many people are quick to give a biased answer but may not be asking the right question.

Of course, safety is the top priority, and the question is whether a U.S. reactor has ever had any discernible health effects on local residents. The answer is no, not even at Three Mile Island over 45 years ago.

This raises another question for the modern American energy landscape: How can the future power generation portfolio of the 2030s power hundreds of new data centers with a total capacity of tens of gigawatts while meeting carbon reduction goals and resilience requirements?

OK, that's a long question, so here's a shorter one: What is energy-dense, CO2-free and baseload electricity?

Nuclear power, that's it. It remains to be seen whether using small modular reactors (SMRs) to power the next generation of mission-critical facilities is feasible, cost-prohibitive or even socially viable. But that debate about the future was the focus of a Thursday session at the Data Center Frontier Trends Summit in Reston, Virginia.

Let's get small to handle massive load

On many levels, it may make economic sense to operate SMR nuclear power plants. SMRs are of course much more expensive and take longer to build than gas-fired power plants or diesel generators, but the current fleet of large-scale nuclear plants has been reliable for decades and generates more than half of the carbon-free electricity in the U.S. The final price per MWh is quite competitive.

SMRs are also expected to be cheaper and safer than traditional fission plants, such as the recent $33 billion Vogtle expansion in Georgia. The next generation of advanced reactors would run on more efficient fuel, be built deeper underground, and would generate on average between 25 and 50 MW per unit.

“Nuclear power is much more versatile” and reliable than other carbon-free fuels, said James Walker, CEO of Nano Nuclear Energy, during the Data Center Frontier Trends Summit session. “China came to that conclusion years ago and is building nuclear power plants like crazy. They need that consistent power.”

The same is true for the US, which may or may not choose to embrace SMR nuclear power, but has no choice but to find a way to meet the projected 40 GW capacity increase for data centers over the next decade. Major industrial and technology companies such as Dow Jones, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft are already pursuing advanced nuclear power, albeit at a very early stage.

Center of the data universe

Massive new data centers are being built in this part of Northern Virginia, where the Data Center Frontier Trends Summit is being held at the Hyatt Regency Reston. The paradigm for siting data centers has traditionally been based on proximity to fiber optic cables, but that is changing, with new facilities being located in places where ample power can be generated.

“Virginia is very successful with its data centers, but all of this [power] cannot be delivered,” noted Ralph Hunter, CEO of Orion Nuclear Energy Corp. and a former executive at nuclear power plant operator Constellation Generation Development.

“You guys,” Hunter added, pointing to the crowd of data center developers, builders and suppliers, “are going to start going to other states.”

America's coal-fired power plants are in decline and will almost certainly never recover. Gas-fired power plants can only be used to a certain extent if the country wants to maintain a diverse portfolio of fuel resources. Solar and wind power are intermittent and cannot guarantee a flexible, reliable energy supply.

Enter nuclear power, which has long been burdened with a dangerous image that evokes frightening memories of Chernobyl, Fukushima and Three Mile Island, and is surrounded by imaginary miles of radioactive waste that is a thousand years old. The truth is that those first two disasters were made worse by both serious human error and extraordinary circumstances, while Three Mile Island, while making frightening negative headlines, in reality caused relatively little damage.

Raising awareness of the facts about nuclear energy

In the United States, Navy submarines have been powered by non-weapons-grade nuclear energy for decades. Reactors also generate nearly a fifth of all the electricity for the public, with far fewer respiratory or other health problems caused by the exhaust clouds from coal-fired power plants.

On the issue of waste, the U.S. Department of Energy has pointed out that decades of nuclear fission have produced no more waste across the country than the size of a football field.

Shortages in nuclear fuel supplies, both spent and non-spent, will be resolved with a tighter uranium supply chain in the coming decade, said Brian Gitt, director of business development at microreactor designer Oklo. The U.S. government has allocated $2.7 billion to tighten the uranium supply chain instead of importing uranium from Russia and other sources.

Oklo also plans to build a recycling plant for spent fuel rods. He estimates that 90 percent of the available energy is still contained in these small cylinders.

“We could power the United States for the next 150 years using only the fuel we use,” Gitt predicted. “It's not a new technology, it's just a matter of the will to do it.”

Make good financial arguments, deal with strong community resistance

Nuclear-powered microgrids make financial and locational sense, proponents say. For one thing, they allow companies to keep their carbon-neutrality promises more directly than with virtual power purchase agreements that invest in remote renewable energy projects.

Second, building SMRs closer to customer load avoids enormous costs for transmission lines and other grid infrastructure that are common with utility-scale renewables and more distant power plants.

“It is possible and will be possible,” Walker said.

One reason this may not be done is the powerful but old “Nimby” argument that keeps cropping up: “Not In My Back Yard.” Residential and commercial customers who are understandably wary of radioactive energy sources will not easily bid a good night to nuclear power acceptance.

So projects need to be rationally thought out, carefully planned, and remotely located, with a business case that demonstrates the prospect of future revenue from subscribers.

The path for future SMR core microgrids is narrow but viable.

“It's an emotional issue,” said Orion's Hunter. “From a practical perspective, you have to find a location for SMR and data centers where this problem doesn't arise. [of stiff commercial and residential resistance].”

Emotions are as powerful as reactors in their own way, and inertia is difficult to overcome unless acted upon by a new force. Education, the panel agreed, is the means to advance SMR core microgrids.

“There is a lot of misunderstanding about what nuclear power is,” Walker said. “We have a lot of facts on our side.”

Emotions don't always translate to facts. Data Center Frontier Trends Summit session moderator Ali Ruckteschler, procurement director at digital infrastructure company Equinix, noted that education should also be supported by regulators who truly understand what's at stake when data center capacity growth is slowed or halted.

“Pressure regulators to educate people,” she said. “We need help educating people [to understand] that without that data center, you can't work on your phone and you can't join that Zoom call. Is that what you want?”

This is a future that most people cannot imagine.

We would like to learn more about nuclear energy and microgrids at our MGK conference next April

The call for speakers for MGK 2025 is now open