Secret weapon in TerraPower's nuclear reactor powers AI data centers
| Source: TechCrunch | Original article
TerraPower's nuclear reactor offers a strategic edge for powering AI data centers, giving it an advantage over rivals in securing data‑center contracts.
TerraPower, the Bill Gates‑backed nuclear venture, has unveiled a design feature that could make its reactors the go‑to power source for the next wave of AI data centres. The company’s Natrium reactor, already under construction at the Kemmerer Power Station in Wyoming, incorporates a built‑in molten‑salt battery that lets the plant boost output from its steady 345 MW baseline to 500 MW on demand.
The ability to ramp power quickly is a rare trait among nuclear installations, which typically deliver a constant output. AI workloads, however, are notoriously spiky, with training runs that can surge and then drop back within minutes. TerraPower’s storage‑augmented design therefore promises to match those fluctuations without the need for external grid support, giving it a strategic edge over competitors courting data‑center contracts.
The move arrives as the AI industry continues to lock down massive electricity deals – from Palantir’s newsroom‑level data‑center pact to Google’s recent acquisition of de‑identified airline data for model training, and OpenAI’s Ohio data‑center partnership with Nvidia. TerraPower’s second unit, slated to break ground in 2027, will be dedicated to an as‑yet‑unnamed data‑centre client, marking the company’s first purpose‑built nuclear supply for AI.
What to watch next: a formal announcement of the second plant’s location and customer before year‑end, performance data from the Wyoming unit once it reaches commercial operation, and how regulators respond to the integrated storage concept. If the Natrium’s on‑demand boost proves reliable, it could reshape the power‑supply playbook for AI‑intensive computing across the Nordics and beyond.
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