Headline, November 20 2024/ ''' TECH GIANTS TURN '''

''' TECH GIANTS

 TURN '''

'' TECH GIANTS TURN TO REACTORS FOR POWER ''. Three companies make deals to meet growing demand for electricity.

Technology companies are increasingly looking to nuclear power plants to provide the emission-free electricity needed to run artificial intelligence and other businesses.

Microsoft, Google and Amazon have recently struck deals with operators and developers of nuclear power plants to fuel the boom in data centers, which provide computing services to businesses large and small.

The demand has accelerated because of the big investments these and other tech companies have made in A.I., which require far more power than more conventional technology businesses like social media, video streaming and web searches.

Microsoft agreed to pay an energy company to revive the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. And this past week, Amazon and Google said they were focusing on a new generation of small modular reactors.

That technology has not yet been successfully commercialized, but energy experts say it might be cheaper and easier to build than the large nuclear reactors that the United States has built since the 1950s.

Big technology companies, which previously invested a lot in wind and solar energy, are now gravitating toward nuclear energy because they want power that is available around the clock while producing no greenhouse gas emissions.

Wind and solar don't contribute to climate change, but they are not available at all times without the help of batteries or other forms of energy storage.

The biggest tech companies have all made pledges to power their operations with emissions-free power by 2030, but those commitments came before the boom in artificial intelligence, which has demanded more energy.

'' They have a desire to grow all this in a sustainable way, and at the moment the best answer is nuclear, '' said Aneesh Prabhu, a managing director at S&P Global Ratings.

One Monday last, Google said that it had agreed to purchase nuclear energy from small modular reactors being developed by a start-up called Kairos Power and that it expected the first of them to be running by 2030.

Then Amazon, on Wednesday, said it would invest in the development of small modular reactors by another start-up, X-Energy.

Microsoft's deal with Constellation Energy to revive a reactor at Three Mile Island was announced last month.

Mr. Prabhu said that small modular reactors could cost about $1 billion each to build and that it might one day be feasible to place them next to data centers.

The tech industry's backing of nuclear projects could help reinvigorate a power source that has struggled. With 94 active nuclear power plant reactors, the United States operates more units than any  other country, but just two have been built in the country in recent decades.

Critics point to longstanding problems with nuclear, which include high costs, construction delays and the difficulty of storing spent fuel.

The Honour and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Tech giants, and electricity needs, continues. The World Students Society thanks Ivan Penn and Karen Weise.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See You all prepare for Great Global Elections on The !WOW! - the exclusive and eternal ownership of every student in the world : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter X !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

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