The discovery of a rare species of bee by environmental regulators has blocked the plans of tech conglomerate Meta to build an artificial intelligence data center powered by nuclear energy—at least temporarily. Numerous media outlets, including Popular Science, have reported that the unnamed species of bee was detected by regulators who were surveying the land designated for the new data center—land that is located next to an unnamed nuclear power plant from which Meta had planned to obtain electricity.

Tech giant Amazon announced Wednesday new partnerships with Dominion Energy and X-energy to develop and deploy 5 gigawatts of nuclear energy to power needs across the country over the next 15 years.

Washington, D.C. — Craig Piercy, CEO of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), issued the following statement:

"The American Nuclear Society applauds the announced partnerships between Google and Kairos Power and by Amazon and X-energy. Together, these deals will add at least 820 megawatts of zero carbon electricity to the U.S. energy supply. This is a major step toward securing the commercial deployment of advanced nuclear technologies that will make the world a cleaner and more prosperous place."

Kairos Power and Google announced over the weekend a new power purchase agreement to provide the tech giant with 500 megawatts of clean energy by 2035.

Under the agreement, California-based Kairos Power will develop, construct, and operate a series of advanced reactor plants and sell energy, ancillary services, and environmental benefits to Google. Plants will be sited in “relevant service territories” to supply clean electricity to Google data centers. The first reactor is planned to be deployed by 2030 to support Google’s 24/7 carbon-free energy and net-zero goals.

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

On August 23, 2011, at 1:51 p.m., I was standing next to Matt Milazzo, a former ANS Congressional Fellow, on the sidewalk of a high-traffic D.C. street. We were saying goodbye after a pleasant lunch. At that exact moment, a seismic wave from a 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Mineral, Va.—one that would be felt as far away as Canada and cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage—rippled under my feet. Perhaps it felt too familiar, like a heavy truck passing by, or maybe the oscillation peaked just as I was turning to walk back to my office. Either way, I didn’t feel a thing. The largest East Coast earthquake in 100 years, and I missed it. Completely. It wasn’t until I saw the stunned faces of my colleagues and a few picture frames scattered on the floor of my office that I understood the gravity of the moment.

Today, as I wrap my head around the stunningly large amount of energy that will be required to support advanced data center and AI functions in the coming years, I get the same feeling—that something big and consequential has happened in my larger world and I have been slow to perceive the magnitude of it.

Duke Energy announced agreements yesterday with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Nucor to accelerate clean energy deployments in the Carolinas through a new rate structure proposal.

The company signed memoradums of understanding this month that include proposed Accelerating Clean Energy (ACE) tariffs that would help offset the long-term costs of investing in clean energy technologies, such as new nuclear and energy storage, through early commitments. Duke announced its partnership with the tech and utility giants at this week’s White House Summit on Domestic Nuclear Deployment aimed at strengthening the U.S. nuclear industry.

In an effort to accelerate development of low- and zero-carbon electricity, three companies have launched the Advanced Clean Electricity initiative—and are seeking information about advanced technology pilot projects.

Scientists at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division, have pulled together a group of Navy, Army, and National Institute of Standards and Technology labs to help try and settle the debate over low-energy nuclear reactions (LENRs), reports IEEE Spectrum, the flagship magazine of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Sometimes referred to as cold fusion, the science of LENRs has been debated since 1989, when Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann published the results of experiments in which they claimed to have generated nuclear energy using a simple, room-temperature tabletop setup involving palladium and heavy water. Subsequent experiments by other researchers, however, failed to replicate their findings, heightening skepticism.

According to the IEEE Spectrum report, the labs will conduct experiments in an effort to establish if there is really something to the LENR idea, if it is just odd chemical interactions, or if some other phenomenon entirely is taking place in these controversial experiments.