As AI pushes up electricity demand, big tech is turning to nuclear energy for clean, reliable energy that keeps the digital world running 24/7.
Supercomputing and artificial intelligence (AI) are rapidly reshaping daily life—from mapping efficient driving routes and coordinating real-time supply chains to powering e-commerce, streaming movies, and finishing schoolwork. But this digital surge is straining America’s weakening power grid—and threatening our air quality in the process. Data centers are only as clean as the electricity powering them, and carbon-free nuclear energy is uniquely equipped to deliver the dispatchable, around-the-clock power they demand.
Demand is Growing
Today, computing already consumes as much electricity in commercial buildings as refrigeration. By 2035, it will surpass lighting in all US offices, stores, warehouses, and hospitals. According to the US Department of Energy, by 2040, it will use more electricity than air conditioning, and by 2050, computing will be the single largest source of commercial power demand. Meeting that load will require massive amounts of new, reliable capacity.
For years, big tech companies signed contracts for wind and solar “farms”—but increasingly, they are seeking generation that is available when needed. They know that when intermittent renewables fall short, firm and dispatchable power—like nuclear—keeps the lights on. After all, no one should wait on favorable weather conditions to verify a credit card at a gas pump or complete a transaction at the supermarket.
Struggles of Natural Gas
Natural gas is nuclear energy’s chief competitor for supplying dispatchable power. But gas-fired electricity is often in short supply during winter peaks when home heating takes priority or pipelines freeze. Coal-fired plants require constant train deliveries—and are vulnerable to weather, labor strikes, and accidents. These just-in-time, interruptible fuels carry another cost: air pollution.
One cautionary example: xAI’s Colossus data center in Memphis, powered by 35 gas turbines and potentially emitting over 2,000 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides annually, now faces a Clean Air Act lawsuit threat from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Nuclear Energy is the Solution
Nuclear energy, by contrast, stores years’ worth of fuel onsite and emits no carbon dioxide, smog, or other harmful pollutants. And thanks to its inherent energy density, nuclear energy does more with less land. To generate one million megawatt-hours—enough to power over 100,000 homes for a year—nuclear energy needs just 103 acres. Solar needs 3,200. Wind? Nearly 18,000 acres. That’s the difference between a shopping mall, the Los Angeles International Airport, and the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, respectively.
As for the waste, all of the used fuel ever produced by US commercial reactors since the 1950s could fit on a single football field, stacked less than 10 yards high. Today, it is safely stored in steel-reinforced, concrete dry casks designed to withstand earthquakes, aircraft crashes, and extreme weather. Over the past 60 years, used nuclear fuel has been stored and transported across America without a single radiological release or harm to the public.
Big Tech Is Making the Shift
For companies and communities seeking abundant, reliable energy while minimizing their environmental footprint, nuclear energy is the practical choice. Energy buyers at big tech firms have reached the same expert conclusion.
Microsoft, aiming to be carbon-negative by 2030, signed a contract to restart a retired reactor in Pennsylvania. Amazon says it will reach net-zero by 2040 and has cut a deal to buy more power from a different nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. And Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has done something similar in Illinois, guaranteeing the extended operation of a nuclear power plant there. All three moves help secure 24/7 clean energy for massive data operations.
Big Tech is also betting on new reactors. Google is backing advanced nuclear developer Kairos Power, while Oklo, another advanced reactor firm, has signed a deal with data center operator Switch for up to 12,000 megawatts.
A new generation of reactors is moving from the drawing board to commercial service, with construction underway in Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming. Some of these designs are compact enough to be factory-built and shipped in modular units—making them faster to deploy and ideally sized for today’s data centers.
Notably, on June 23, New York Governor Kathy Hochul directed the state’s Power Authority to develop at least 1,000 megawatts of new nuclear energy—a decisive break from her predecessor’s move to prematurely shutter the Indian Point nuclear power plant, once the state’s largest source of carbon-free electricity.
Indian Point’s closure led to higher emissions and a greater risk of blackouts—conditions that ultimately increase the likelihood of premature deaths. The only tangible upside? Sparing some fish eggs near the plant’s cooling intakes. As the late Norris McDonald of the pro-nuclear African American Environmentalist Association asked a decade ago, “How many African American children should suffer from asthma in order to marginally improve the level of fish egg mortality in the Hudson River?”
What we build to power AI and our digital future matters. All energy sources have tradeoffs —but for large industries that demand 24/7 reliability and environmental responsibility, nuclear energy is the natural fit.
About the Author: Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith is the Director of Communications at the American Nuclear Society (ANS). Prior to ANS, Andrew was Senior Program Manager for Potomac Communications Group and an energy reporter at S&P Global Market Intelligence. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and a Master of Arts in Journalism from Ulster University in Northern Ireland.
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