AI: Meta is looking for project developers for new nuclear power plants
The demand for electricity in the USA will increase massively due to artificial intelligence. Meta is looking for project developers for nuclear power plants.
(Image: Pavel Ignatov/Shutterstock.com)
Facebook parent company Meta is launching a nuclear power offensive in the USA and is looking for project developers to implement it. The aim is to build power plants with a total output of between one and four gigawatts in the USA. According to a press release, this should start at the beginning of the 2030s. A typical US nuclear power plant has a capacity of around one gigawatt. This means that several new power plants would be required to achieve the maximum target. In addition to conventional large reactors, small, modular reactors are also under discussion.
Like other IT companies, Meta justifies its nuclear offensive with the rapidly increasing demand for electricity due to artificial intelligence. According to one forecast, data centers in the USA alone will require around three times as much electricity by 2030 as before. According to a report by the US news agency Reuters, there will be a new demand for 47 gigawatts of generation capacity.
What problems are looming
Nuclear power is seen by tech companies as renewable, reliable and clean energy, as Meta, for example, explains in its press release. It also enables companies to meet the climate targets they have set themselves. Meta sees nuclear power as a way to create a reliable base load supply. This would contribute to grid stability and complement the existing energy mix.
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However, according to Reuters, potential bottlenecks in the supply of uranium fuel and possible protests in the regions where new power plants are to be built are seen as problems. In addition, the regulation of nuclear power is more complex than that of wind and solar power – and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is overburdened in view of the current boom in nuclear power.
Tech companies want nuclear power
In recent months, it has become known that Microsoft, together with Constellation Energy, is planning to restart a reactor at the well-known Three Mile Island power plant. Amazon and Google are also focusing on nuclear power.
(mki)
