As the age of artificial intelligence becomes more prominent element expanding its footprint in our existence, focus has now been sharpened on the means of producing and powering this advanced and revolutionary technology.
AI Powered By Nuclear
In the recent past, stakeholders in the AI business have been questioned over usage of energy in their AI data centres and how it is procured.
In fact, some reports even suggest that these data centres use more energy than some nations in the developing world.
In what is being seen as means to address that problem, Sundar Pichai-led Google and Jeff Bezos’s Amazon have now turned to nuclear power to help aid their AI ambitions.
These companies are now investing in small module nuclear reactors to be able to surge their productivity while using a relatively sustainable means of energy.
SMRs
Here, a Small Module Reactor, or SMR, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency or IAEA, is an advanced nuclear reactor that has a power capacity of up to 300 MW(e) per unit. This said capacity is about one-third of the generating capacity of other traditional nuclear power reactors.
Google Signs A Deal
Here these companies will purchase electricity from these SMRs. The Silicon Valley giant Google recently signed an agreement with another California-based company, Kairos Power.
Google in a statement claimed that it intends to generate 500 MW of new 24/7 carbon-free power from this system.
Google in a statement claimed that it intends to generate 500 MW of new 24/7 carbon-free power from this system.
After Google, Amazon, which, apart from the e-commerce business, has thrived because of its cloud services, has also announced it would be investing in SMRs.
The aforementioned companies are not the first to do it; as one of the most valuable companies in the world, Microsoft also said it would be procuring power from the Third Mile Island Nuclear Plant in Pennsylvania, as its reopen after an accident in 1979.
These developments come at a crucial time, once again reinforcing the comeback of nuclear power, which for many had fallen out of fashion after the Fukushima Daiichi in Japan in 2011.
