Google will buy nuclear energy from US start-up Kairos Power, which will be produced by new generation small reactors, called SMRs, an acronym for 'small modular reactor', the technology conglomerate announced on Monday.
The contract provides for the first Kairos SMR to be commissioned by 2030, with a ramp-up in 2035, to provide an additional response to the Alphabet subsidiary's huge electricity needs.
Google declined to disclose an amount for this transaction.
The emergence of cloud computing has multiplied the energy consumption of the big players in the sector, such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon, due to the use of data storage centers.
The latter have become even more indispensable with the development of generative artificial intelligence [AI], which needs colossal amounts of data and legions of semiconductors to exploit it.
In order to guarantee sufficient electricity resources, the big names in the cloud are signing contracts with energy suppliers, particularly nuclear ones.
At the end of September, Microsoft presented a partnership with the US group Constellation Energy, which provides for the reopening of a reactor at the Three Mile Island plant, in the state of Pennsylvania.
The second reactor at Three Mile Island has been idle since 1979, when it suffered the most serious civil nuclear incident in the USA.
SMRs, like the Kairos FHR, are new generation reactors, none of which are operating in the US.
While the cost of developing the prototypes is high, they have a reputation for being cheaper in the long run than conventional plants.
Another start-up, NuScale, had been the first to have its SMR approved, but its most advanced project, in the state of Idaho, was canceled at the end of 2023.
At the same time, Kairos received authorization from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to proceed with its first experimental reactor, the construction of which began in July in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
This first SMR should start operating in 2027.
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