The U.S. nuclear industry is experiencing a potential revival driven by tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta, which are investing in nuclear power to meet the growing energy demands of AI and data centers. Constellation Energy plans to restart the Three Mile Island reactor, while Amazon is developing small modular nuclear reactors at the Hanford Site. These tech companies acknowledge that their operations require vast electricity for their advanced data processing needs. However, the nuclear industry continues to grapple with longstanding problems of radioactive waste management that remain unresolved.
Long in decline, the U.S. nuclear industry is hoping for resurrection at two sites of its greatest failures: Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and the Hanford Site in Washington state.
The resurgence is heavily driven by tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon, who see nuclear power as a solution to their surging energy demands for data centers.
Each Nvidia Blackwell chip can draw up to two kilowatts, illustrating the immense power needs with thousands placed in data centers, likening their consumption to that of small cities.
Despite plans to revive nuclear energy, the industry still faces long-unresolved challenges regarding the management of radioactive nuclear waste.
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