Meta aims for 1-4 GW of American nuclear power for AI • The Register

Meta expects it will need one to four gigawatts of nuclear energy in addition to the energy it is already using to advance its AI ambitions. Therefore, it will issue a request for proposals (RFP) to find developers capable of providing this level of electricity in the United States by early 2030.

“Advancing the technologies that will shape the future of human connection – including the next wave of AI innovation – requires expanding electric grids and harnessing new sources of reliable, clean, renewable energy,” Facebook parent company wrote in a blog post , in which she announced this RFP on Tuesday.

But while Meta plans to continue investing in solar and wind energy, hyperscalers seem convinced that harnessing the atom is the only practical means of satisfying AI’s thirst for power while meeting their sustainability commitments.

This wouldn’t be the first time that Meta has taken on nuclear fission. As we previously reported, Meta had planned to build a nuclear data center complex, but was thwarted after a rare species of bee was discovered at a potential site, leading to its cancellation.

Meta has become a leading developer of generative AI models, with Llama 3.1 405B among the most sophisticated. To support the development of these and future models, Zuckerberg has committed to deploying around 600,000 GPUs, which require an enormous amount of power to operate.

It is our understanding that additional details regarding the nature of the tender will be provided to qualified companies. However, we do know that Meta is looking for someone who can provide between one and four gigawatts of nuclear power, which suggests that the company is still a little uncertain about how much power it will need to achieve its goals, and that too These plans are intended for the USA.

The blog post also mentions the prospect of deploying multiple units to reduce costs. Given the timeline, this suggests that Meta is very likely considering small modular reactors (SMRs).

As the name suggests, SMRs are actually just miniaturized reactors, similar to those found in nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers, that can be manufactured and placed next to data centers and other industrial buildings.

Many hyperscalers and cloud providers faced with the power demands of AI have turned to SMRs to the rescue, and there is certainly no shortage of options to choose from. Oklo, X-energy, Terapower, Kairos Power and NuScale Power are just a few of the companies actively developing reactor designs. It’s worth noting, however, that despite all the hype surrounding these teeny-tiny reactors, no one has managed to demonstrate their commercial viability.

But since there are few alternatives that do not involve abandoning their lofty sustainability promises, many data center operators are moving forward with entering into power purchase agreements with SMR providers. Most recently, Sam Altman-backed startup Oklo announced that it had received letters of intent from two major data center providers to supply 750 megawatts of power.

Amazon has also committed to investing in nuclear power. Back in October, the e-commerce and cloud giant announced that it was working with X-Energy to build multiple SMRs. Google, meanwhile, has partnered with Kairos on a similar plan, and Oracle says it has received construction permits for three SMRs that will power a 1-gigawatt data center campus.

However, it remains to be seen whether these plans will ever come to fruition. In addition to nuclear energy’s strict regulatory controls, the technology is considered unsafe by many, despite evidence to the contrary. Perhaps even more pressing is the fact that SMRs will not be cheap, at least in the early days.

Earlier this year, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis argued that SMRs are “too expensive, too slow to produce, and too risky” to play a significant role in transitioning away from fossil fuels.

Of course, SMRs aren’t the only option for meta here. Microsoft is working with Constellation Energy to bring the decommissioned Unit 1 reactor on Three Mile Island back online. Meanwhile, earlier this year, Amazon purchased Talen Energy’s Cumulus nuclear data center, which sits next to the 2.5-gigawatt Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, for $650 million.

However, even the existing nuclear infrastructure is not a sure thing. In November of this year, Amazon ran into trouble after federal regulators rejected a deal that would have allowed it to increase power consumption at the site from 300 to 480 megawatts.

Putting these plans online is by no means trivial. As we previously reported, the Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan, which received a $1.5 billion loan from Uncle Sam, will require extensive and costly repairs to the steam generator tubes. ®