Why Are Tech Companies Buying Up All The Nuclear Power Plants Around The World? - Jack Chapple

[TexasTowelie]

Apart from its beautiful cottage country environment, it’s a place that you could pass without a second thought. But something is happening here now, something that represents a massive shift in the way energy, power, and corporate control are evolving in the 21st century.

Amazon, a company you might associate more with next-day deliveries or endless movie recommendations, is making moves in a very different sector: nuclear energy. In a quiet but monumental deal, Amazon has bought up a nuclear reactor here in North Anna. It’s a head-turning development, yet it’s not entirely surprising.

Because Lake Anna is not alone.

In recent years, tech companies have begun buying nuclear reactors across the world. Just days ago, google announced it was buying and setting up nuclear reactors in California. Meanwhile, Microsoft followed suit with a reactor project on Three Mile Island, a site that notoriously shut down after a partial nuclear meltdown. And let’s not forget about Larry Ellisons’ Oracle. Larry Ellison a few weeks ago said this on a strange earnings call.

“Let me say something that’s going to sound really bizarre…The location and the power place we’ve located, they’ve already got building permits for three nuclear reactors. These are the small modular nuclear reactors to power the data center. This is how crazy it’s getting. This is what’s going on.”

It’s not just the odd deal here or there. These purchases are part of a growing trend — tech giants are acquiring nuclear reactors as though they were grabbing prime real estate in Manhattan.

Why is this happening?

To understand, we have to rewind a bit. The tech industry today isn’t just about the gadgets in our pockets or the apps we use to navigate the world. It’s built on immense, unseen networks of data centers, high-performance computing clusters, and increasingly, artificial intelligence. And all these systems, in turn, rely on one thing: energy.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Whoever is pushing that video is wrong.

Amazon is not “buying up all the nuclear reactors” at Lake Anna. The two reactors already there are owned by Dominion Energy. Here’s what’s going on:

Amazon strikes deal to develop nuclear power at Va.’s Lake Anna

Jeff Clabaugh | [e-mail]
October 16, 2024, 11:20 AM

Amazon Web Services has signed three new agreements to develop nuclear power projects for energizing its massive data centers, including one with Virginia’s Dominion Energy.

The Dominion agreement includes exploring the development of Small Modular Reactors, a kind of nuclear reactor with a smaller physical footprint that allows them to be built closer to the grid, and with faster build and delivery times. The project would be near Dominion’s existing nuclear power facilities at Virginia’s Lake Anna.

{snip}

I posted about this in E&E the other day.

And good morning.

[CoopersDad]

2. It's not just energy, it's about water, too. Link to a SVLG conference on these matters

When I attended a recent Silicon Valley conference on this very issue at Oracle, I learned how tremendous the growing demand for data centers is turning out to be.

But I didn't realize that water demand, mostly for cooling the data centers and the new generation facilities, is also of great concern.

https://www.svlg.org/silicon-valley-leadership-groups-first-annual-sustainable-growth-summit-driving-innovation-for-a-sustainable-future/