New Delhi: In an important move for the future of both AI and energy production, Google has signed a “world-first” deal to use small nuclear reactors as a power source for artificial intelligence (AI). This is the first such corporate agreement to buy nuclear energy from small modular reactors. For this Google has ordered around seven reactors from a company named Kairos Power. The first set is expected to be complete by 2030.
The need for the move arose due to AI being extremely “thirsty”, in that it consumes huge amounts of energy to function. Seeing how AI usage is only increasing, renewable and clean sources of energy have to be brought up for it to function and nuclear energy is now being considered as one such likely option. While the decision by Google is understandable as it has to experiment to find newer energy sources for AI, it has also reignited the debate surrounding safe use of nuclear power and its viability for large scale usage.
Unending debate
According to a research report from the International Energy Agency, energy consumption from AI data centres has increased exponentially in recent times and is only expected to double from an estimated 460 terawatt-hours in 2022 to more than 1,000 in 2026. To produce such huge amounts of energy solely through non-renewables like fossil fuels is a dangerous initiative for the natural environment and tech giants are thus looking for other options, nuclear energy being primary among them.
The amount of energy generated through such means is huge. Even a ‘small’ 500MW installation that Google is buying from Kairos Power is enough to power a midsize city. A major reason that AI technology requires such huge amounts of energy is that it uses computer chips called graphics processing units or GPUs for trading its large language models which consume huge amounts of energy.
With the explicit intention of looking for alternatives and help in not adding to the climate crisis that such energy demands may induce, many major tech companies are looking towards nuclear energy. Amazon also recently announced it will invest over 500 million US dollars on nuclear energy for powering its AI apparatus.
Nonetheless, the usage of nuclear energy remains controversial. It has several risks and this issue is old and much debated for a long time. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated that at least 80 per cent of the world’s electricity must be low carbon by 2050 to keep warming within 2 °C of pre-industrial levels. With this in mind, it looks like sooner or later such alternative energy sources like nuclear power would come into use.
Supporters of using nuclear energy claim that it offers a nearly carbon-free form of electricity. They argue that it is also more reliable than renewable sources like solar and wind. Fears surrounding its use though are historic as it has come to be associated with disasters of the past.
The economics concerned are also important to look at. Investments need to be long-term and intensive in such projects. Then comes safety which in recent times has considerably improved. Contrary to popular belief, many studies now say that nuclear power is safe to manufacture electricity on an industrial scale. Then comes the issues of nuclear waste and radiation toxicity, issues which are still highly contested. All in all, the debate will ensue, but seeing the high energy demand, alternatives like nuclear will be looked at sooner or later.
