Artificial intelligence is sparking a nuclear power renaissance. On Monday, Google announced that it signed a deal with Kairos Power to back the construction of seven small nuclear power reactors to fuel growing energy consumption from its data centers. And in a separate deal late last month, Microsoft announced their plan to re-open Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear plant. Under an agreement signed with the energy company Constellation, the carbon-free energy produced by the plant will furnish reliable energy to Microsoft’s data centers while providing the local community with high-paying jobs.

Unfortunately, not everyone is happy about these developments.

Recent opinion commentary by famous actress and activist Jane Fonda, for example, labels nuclear power unsafe and costly. This is false. Nuclear power is the second safest form of energy and is cheaper than both wind and solar. It will also be needed to keep up with a high-powered future of technological advancement.

As a looming Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution drives up energy demand, policymakers should be looking for opportunities to expand abundant energy options. Reopening Three Mile Island and constructing small nuclear power reactors are small but important steps in making that task easier.

Training an AI program requires that massive amounts of data be repeatedly run through the model. Research by Goldman Sachs estimates a 160 percent growth in power demand by 2030, with the majority of the demand coming from AI. One recent study published in the Intelligent Computing journal noted that AI’s computing power consumption doubles every 100 days. That means AI on New Years Day will have grown its power consumption to be eight times as high by Halloween due to exponential growth.

Ultimately, AI’s adoption and innovation will be limited by an energy supply wall. As AI models grow in size and complexity, more stress will be placed on a woefully unprepared U.S. power grid to meet these growing energy needs. AI access and innovation will be limited by the ability to access energy.

Read the full article here.

Trey Price is a policy analyst with the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit us at www.TheAmericanConsumer.Org or follow us on X @ConsumerPal.

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