Catenaa, Wednesday, November 13, 2024 – Amazon and Meta’s ambitious plans to power data centers with nuclear energy have faced significant regulatory challenges, jeopardizing their push to secure stable electricity sources for power-hungry AI and cloud computing infrastructure.
While Microsoft’s initiative to revive a reactor at Three Mile Island is still moving forward, Amazon and Meta have encountered major obstacles.
Meta’s plan involved building an AI data center adjacent to an existing nuclear plant. However, environmental regulations became a sticking point after a rare bee species was found on the proposed site, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned in a recent all-hands meeting. The discovery added delays to the project, underlining the complications of balancing environmental considerations with energy-intensive tech operations.
Amazon’s challenges arose from a regulatory ruling by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on November 1. Amazon aimed to directly connect a new hyperscale data center to the Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. FERC, however, voted 2-1 against expanding the data center’s power agreement due to concerns that this could compromise regional electricity stability, potentially leading to brownouts or higher costs for other customers.
This regulatory intervention underscores a growing challenge for hyperscale data centers seeking dedicated power supplies. With at least eight other large-scale power requests pending before FERC, the commission’s stance could impact future data center projects looking to tap into nuclear or other high-demand power sources.
However, just a week before Google announced building its own nuclear power plant.
