Amazon, Google, Microsoft and different massive tech firms are turning to nuclear energy to gasoline AI, which wants extra power because it grows extra complicated. Final month, Amazon invested $500 million in nuclear power, and Google signed its first nuclear power deal. In September, Microsoft moved to reopen Three Mile Island, the three-mile nuclear plant close to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to energy its AI power wants.
Not all of Large Tech’s nuclear efforts have gone easily: Earlier this month, Meta’s plans to open a nuclear energy plant were halted when the corporate discovered a uncommon bee species subsequent to the plant. Meta additionally confronted regulatory challenges making an attempt to open the plant.
James Walker is the CEO of NANO Nuclear Vitality, the primary nuclear microreactor firm listed on NASDAQ. A microreactor is sufficiently small to be moved round by a truck, and it converts heat from a nuclear response into electrical energy.
On the time of this writing, NANO’s market cap was round $700 million; it was based in 2022.
Associated: Google Follows Microsoft’s Lead With Nuclear Power for AI
In an unique interview, Walker advised Entrepreneur about the advantages and downsides of nuclear power and the toughest a part of constructing a nuclear startup. He additionally recognized areas the place new companies can thrive. Responses have been edited for size and readability.
Entrepreneur: What are the upsides and disadvantages of opening nuclear energy crops?
Walker: On the upside, it brings on-line an enormous, established supply of dependable, carbon-free energy — one thing that is important as energy demands soar.
The draw back is that older crops want vital upgrades to satisfy trendy security requirements, which could be expensive and time-consuming.
Does nuclear power create a viable different to conventional strategies of powering AI?
Completely. AI-driven knowledge facilities want constant, high-output energy across the clock, and conventional renewables like photo voltaic and wind, whereas helpful, merely cannot present that alone.
Associated: Will It Take Nuclear Power to Sustain AI? Microsoft Is Betting on It.
Nuclear power, significantly with improvements like microreactors, gives a gradual, carbon-free energy source well-suited to AI’s calls for. It is an important piece of the puzzle if we need to proceed pushing boundaries in AI with out working into energy limitations.
Why begin a nuclear power firm?
Fossil fuels have gotten us far, however we all know they’re neither sustainable nor environment friendly sufficient to help the power calls for of tomorrow.
Nuclear power, particularly with advances in microreactor expertise, provides us a novel approach to generate clear, constant energy that may be sited wherever, which even provides it an enormous benefit over all different renewables.
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Are there any areas or industries the place you see issues that new companies can remedy?
One space ripe for innovation is power storage and the broader renewable sector. Battery expertise is advancing, however there’s nonetheless a lot potential for brand spanking new companies to search out methods to retailer, distribute and effectively use renewable power.
One other massive space is the logistics of gasoline transportation and nuclear supplies, particularly for protected and cost-effective dealing with.
Moreover, we want extra options for recycling and decreasing waste in power manufacturing — not simply nuclear, however throughout all sectors. There’s an enormous marketplace for new concepts that may preserve prices low whereas addressing environmental issues head-on.
