In a flurry of press releases, blog articles, and LinkedIn posts all released August 18, Kairos Power, Google, and the Tennessee Valley Authority announced a new power purchase agreement (PPA) between Kairos and TVA to supply up to 50 MW to the TVA grid, which powers two data centers owned by Google.

This agreement marks a significant milestone: It’s the first time a U.S. utility has entered into a PPA to buy power from a Gen IV reactor.

In back-to-back press releases, Oklo recently announced two new partnerships that seek to advance the deployment of its commercial power reactors in the data center market.

These partnerships, one with Ohio-based Vertiv Holdings and one with Colorado-based Liberty Energy, continue Oklo’s trend in working to position their Aurora powerhouse as a key part of the energy solution for powering the AI boom.

As part of a broader series on the future of global energy markets, S&P Global has released a report on examining the growing interest in nuclear power as the solution to many of the problems the energy sector faces.

To read the full details and conclusions of the report, click here.

As part of a broader series on the future of the global energy markets, S&P Global has released a new report examining the growing interest in nuclear energy as the solution to many of the problems the energy sector faces.

While no development details have been released, Constellation is asking to rezone 658.8 acres of land it owns around the Byron nuclear plant in Illinois for possible long-term use.

American Electric Power and Exelon are seeking a hearing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission about a proposed data center project linked to Talen’s Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.

Ken Petersen
president@ans.org

Nuclear has been on a good roll lately and it is getting better. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides a nuclear power production tax credit. This has stopped the early retirement of deregulated units. The IRA also provides a benefit for the clean production of hydrogen. Many utilities have committed to a net-zero goal by 2050. Duke and other utilities have plans to transition coal plants to nuclear with small modular reactors.

And now, nuclear has a new supporter—tech companies.

The big U.S. utility companies (like Exelon, Duke, Dominion, Southern, and Entergy) are all projecting growth in electricity demand—primarily in the commercial sector but some residential growth is also expected. Commercial growth is being driven by new factories (thank you, IRA and CHIPS, that is, the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act). It is also being driven by data centers.