By Eric Hoegger, Director, Power and Energy, and Tom Kingham, Director, Engineering Solutions Europe
“Nuclear energy safely generates carbon-free electricity, anchors economic activity across America, and even propels space travel,” according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. Nuclear energy is made by splitting atoms to produce energy through a process called nuclear fission. But can nuclear energy power data centers? The answer is yes, and it could become a reality sooner than you think.
The data center industry has committed to ongoing efforts to reduce emissions. Data centers already utilize renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. However, nuclear is becoming increasingly considered as a sustainable way to power data centers in the future.
Does a nuclear-powered data center make sense from an environmental perspective? Nuclear is an opportunity to power data centers with carbon-free energy, reducing the environmental footprint compared to a conventional grid power. The U.S. Department of Energy says “nuclear is often left out of the ‘clean energy’ conversation despite it being the second largest source of low-carbon electricity in the world behind hydropower.”
In Europe, France has fully embraced nuclear energy. According to the World Nuclear Association, “France derives about 70% of its electricity from nuclear energy, due to a long-standing policy based on energy security.” Meanwhile, Germany recently shut down its three remaining nuclear power plants as the country transitions toward renewable energy.
Nuclear offers several potential benefits to data centers. Most notable is distinguishing a data center as one with a zero-carbon footprint related to the energy supply. Another benefit is that nuclear is one of the few forms of base load, carbon-free power available. Nuclear is reliable and can produce carbon-free power 24/7. It is not dependent on the wind blowing or the sun shining. Nuclear is a fantastic technology from a density point of view because it doesn't take up that much space to generate massive volumes of power.
If managed correctly, nuclear power offers carbon-free power. However, nuclear power is highly regulated, and rightfully so, because safe operations are essential to avoid disastrous consequences. Because nuclear power is highly regulated, this also makes it far more complex to execute onsite. New regulations are needed to scale to small modular reactors while maintaining the same safety levels of large-scale utility plants. Unfortunately, the U.S. doesn’t have a good track record of deploying nuclear power on schedule and on budget. As a result, typically only large utilities with regulated cost recovery mechanisms are financially able to pursue.
In the U.S., new small-scale modular reactors open up new possibilities, but safety and the regulation that goes along with that safety needs to be first and foremost. The nuclear waste that goes along with nuclear power plants is an issue too. Compared to the U.S., the space in Europe is more limited, the densities of the population are much greater, and international borders are in close proximity.
Much of the conversation about nuclear-powered data centers focuses on small modular reactors and whether they need to be built near traditional nuclear plants. In January 2023, U.S. nuclear regulators approved small modular reactors for commercial use. The reactor can either be placed onsite or at a remote location. However, onsite reactors are not feasible in Europe, where sites are significantly smaller and land needs to be optimized, by building vertically, to maximize return on investment. Onsite placement connects directly to a generation source and reduces the need to use limited transmission resources. Offsite placement is a bit more limiting and requires working with existing utility-scale nuclear power plants.
Beyond nuclear, there are other alternatives to consider. At CyrusOne, we are always looking for renewable energy opportunities to add to our portfolio. Nuclear power offers additional diversity to our power supply. When considering other base-load, carbon-free forms of power, large-scale hydropower is an option, but that is dependent on river flows and weather conditions to refill reservoirs. Nuclear is really the only form of carbon-free power that is capable of being weather decoupled.
As the data center sector continues to grow and digital infrastructure expands, nuclear power is becoming a viable option for data centers to reduce carbon footprints and transition to a low-carbon energy future. Nuclear options for data centers will continue to evolve and will play an important role in helping meet growing clean electricity demands.
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