E-commerce giant %Amazon (NASDAQ: $AMZN) has become the latest technology company to turn to %NuclearPower to help meet its growing data centre electricity needs.
The Seattle-based company says it has signed agreements to develop and draw energy from small modular nuclear reactors.
Amazon’s small modular nuclear reactor project will be based in Washington State and developed by X-Energy. Financial terms of the deal were not made public.
However, under the agreement, Amazon will have the right to purchase electricity from four nuclear reactors to help power its data centres that run artificial intelligence (A.I.) applications.
Eventually Amazon could draw power from as many as eight small modular nuclear reactors that, combined, can produce enough power to run 770,000 U.S. homes.
Other technology companies are also turning to nuclear power to generate the electricity needed to run A.I. applications and models through data centres.
Google parent company %Alphabet (NASDAQ: $GOOGL) has announced plans to also use small modular nuclear reactors to meet its future power needs.
%Microsoft (NASDAQ: $MSFT) has said it wants to restart a dormant nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania to power its A.I. projects.
In March of this year, Amazon purchased a nuclear-powered data centre from %TalenEnergy (NASDAQ: $TLN).
U.S. data centre power use is expected to triple by 2030, driven by demand for A.I., according to investment bank %GoldmanSachs (NYSE: $GS).
Small modular nuclear reactors are built in factories rather than onsite like bigger nuclear reactors, making them cheaper to construct. They also do not produce greenhouse gas emissions and can be set-up near the location where the power they generate is to be sent.
However, critics say the small reactors are too expensive to achieve economies of scale, and that they will produce long-lasting radioactive waste that is potentially harmful.
Amazon’s stock has gained 24% this year and currently trades at $186.26 U.S. per share.