Westinghouse Electric
Westinghouse Electrichas subject its Preliminary Safety Design Report(PSDR ) for the eVinci Microreactor to the National Reactor Innovation Center ( NRIC ) at the U.S. Department of Energy ( DOE ) , a major milepost in a summons that began last October .
America largely abandoned atomic vim after the Three Mile Island disaster in 1979 , but it is making a retort thanks tothe astronomic energy ( and chilling ) requirementsof today ’s frontier AI models . A recent study by the Washington Post and The University of California , Davis , found that using ChatGPT to generate a single 100 - Holy Scripture email can go through up to nearly a liter and a one-half of pee and enough vitality to world power 14 light-emitting diode igniter bulbs for an hr . And as AI model grow ever large and more complex , their world power demands are expected to increase in step , with AI data point heart squander multiple megawatts up to a full gigawatt of electricity .
Westinghouse Electric
With the submission of the PSDR , Westinghouse can now deploy the eVinci for testing at the NRIC ’s Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments ( DOME ) facility . The NRIC is tasked with develop four new observational facilities and two large nuclear reactor trial bed by 2028 where it will impart “ comprehensive applied science demonstration ” before finalizing a pair of advanced nuclear technology experimentation by 2030 .
“ The pass completion of the PSDR for the eVinci test reactor is an important step towards enabling a microreactor developer to perform a test in our DOME adroitness , ” said Brad Tomer , acting director of NRIC . “ As a national DOE programme and part of INL , the country ’s atomic free energy research laboratory , NRIC is committed to work with private companies such as Westinghouse to perform testing and speed up exploitation of in advance atomic technologies that will supply clean-living energy solutions for the U.S. ”
The eVinci works “ basically as a barrage fire , ” according to Westinghouse . It uses very few motivate parts , or else trust on “ the first ever 12 - foot atomic - grade heating system pipe ” totransfer heat from the nuclear inwardness . In addition to providing electric business leader for remote sites and installations , the nuclear reactor can also generate the high temperature heat needed to bring about hydrogen fuel . Each nuclear reactor unit is designed to run 24/7 for eight years at a meter . When a nuclear reactor drop all of its fuel , Westinghouse will switch it out wholesale for another plastered reactor .
Westinghouse is far from the only fellowship quest for atomic energy solutions to power AI datum centre . Oracle announced plans in September to use three pocket-sized nuclear reactors to power its young 1 - gigawatt AI datum center , Amazon ’s AWSrecently purchased a 960 - megawatt data shopping center campus from Talen , andMicrosoft is presently seeking to reopenthe Unit 1 nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island itself to power its AI data kernel .
