Agreement comes amid significant interest in nuclear plants for powering big tech
US nuclear reactor supplier Westinghouse Electric Company and European data centre developer and operator Data4 have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the use of Westinghouse AP300 small modular reactors (SMR) to power future data centres in Europe.
Under the agreement, Data4 has chosen the AP300 SMR as its technology of choice to evaluate deployment at one of its future data centres to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
Data4’s chief executive officer Olivier Micheli said the data centre industry is undergoing a profound transformation. With the rise of AI, energy supply is evolving rapidly, he said.
“In the past, data centres relied solely on traditional power utilities,” Micheli said. “Today, we are entering an era where the campuses of the future will be powered by multiple intelligent sources, seamlessly integrating onsite generation, traditional grid supply and energy storage.”
Micheli said that by integrating the Westinghouse AP300 SMR, these campuses will gain greater energy autonomy, reducing their reliance on traditional grids and helping to alleviate pressure on public power networks.
Westinghouse president and chief executive officer Patrick Fragman said that as technology centres and cloud providers expand data infrastructure to meet increasing demand, SMRs offer a promising solution for powering the next generation of energy-intensive computing.
“Our AP300 modular reactor can provide data centres with a dedicated, on-site power source for reliable and carbon-free energy,” Fragman said.
The Data4 agreement with Westinghouse comes amid significant interest in nuclear plants for powering big tech, with several companies including Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft all looking at nuclear reactors to power their energy-intensive data centres and AI initiatives.
Data centres consume a substantial and growing share of the world’s electricity with International Energy Agency estimates ranging between 240 and 340 TWh in 2022. Data centre capacity is expected to double by 2030.
