C'mon El Reg, say what you mean.
From The Register, May 7:
Chocolate Factory promises early-stage capital to atomic upstart Elementl
Google has signed a strategic agreement with nuclear project developer Elementl Power to support the early development of three potential fission reactor sites in the US.
But with no selected reactor tech and no construction timeline, the announcement sounds more like a handwaving exercise to distract onlookers from the massive amount of energy that will be expended as Google and other companies race to capitalize on the AI boom.
Google and Elementl announced the partnership in a press release Wednesday. The tech giant will provide early-stage development capital to help prepare three sites for potential advanced atomic nuclear facilities, each targeting at least 600 megawatts of capacity, the pair said.
Typically, the term "advanced" refers to future nuclear fission plant designs that are meant to be quicker to build, but which generate less power than traditional nuclear stations. By way of comparison, the recently completed Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia, which is the largest in the US, has four atomic reactors producing a total of 4,500 megawatts, according to the US Energy Information Administration. A 2024 McKinsey report claims that a "normal" datacenter being planned today consumes 200MW, up from 30MW a decade ago thanks partly to the AI boom.
Unlike burning natural gas or coal, nuclear power adds no climate-warming carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, allowing Elementl CEO Chris Colbert to claim in the release, "We look forward to working with Google to execute these projects and bring safe, carbon-free, baseload electricity to the grid."
Elementl also claims the agreement supports its ambition to "bring more than 10 gigawatts online in the United States by 2035." But since Google's involvement only covers three sites, that 10 GW target clearly extends beyond this deal. The companies didn't disclose locations, reactor vendors, nor the specific technologies under consideration.
Google declined to provide further details beyond its joint statement with Elementl.
Elementl didn't respond to questions by press time. Its public materials offer little clarity on its actual operations—aside from broad claims about providing "turn-key project development, financing and ownership solutions customized to meet our customers' needs while mitigating risks and maximizing benefit."
The nuclear developer, founded in 2022, presents itself as a facilitator of advanced reactor projects. But it has not built any reactors to date and describes itself as a "technology-agnostic nuclear power developer and independent power producer," signaling it does not back any specific reactor design.
This approach aligns with the background of Elementl's CEO and chairman, Christopher Colbert, who previously served as CFO, COO, and chief strategy officer at NuScale Power.
NuScale was the first (and so far only) company in the United States to receive regulatory certification for a small modular reactor (SMR) design. Despite this approval, NuScale has not yet built an operational reactor. Its flagship Carbon Free Power Project in Idaho was canceled in 2023 due to escalating costs and insufficient customer commitment.
Ambitions vs. reality
This is the second nuclear power deal that Google signed in recent months. The first came in October of last year when the search giant partnered with Kairos Power to advance its molten salt SMR design as a potential source of datacenter fuel.
Kairos has received construction permits from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for its Hermes and Hermes 2 demonstration reactors in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with the first reactor projected to be operational by 2027. The agreement with Google aims to bring the first reactor online by 2030, followed by additional deployments through 2035.
But as The Register pointed out recently, Google's nuclear plans - along with those backed by Meta, Amazon, and others - may be too little too late to address the growing concerns that there isn't enough power to fuel the growing demand from datacenters and AI. Experts predict an "unprecedented" spike in demand, driven in part by datacenter and AI growth, that could require 3,500 TWh of new energy generation by 2027....
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