Here in the tech mecca that is San Francisco, the AI hype cycle continues. Billboards blare exclusionary jargon about the next industry disruption, everyone seems to be enthusiastically pitching their new startup, and our vocal hometown billionaires pooh-pooh public concerns about the massive drain on the energy grid. Yes, energy needs are on the rise and will remain so for the foreseeable future, as every ChatGPT query consumes roughly ten times the electricity of a standard Google search. With the grid already straining, the tech titans are no longer looking at the wind or the sun to save them. Instead, they are betting on the atom. Science News’s Emily Conover dials into the details.

⚡️ Nuclear without the nightmares

We’re not talking about those hulking nuclear reactor cooling towers best known from meltdown disaster footage. Instead, the new focus is on small modular reactors and advanced reactor designs for better, safer and faster deployment. Data centers may require up to 17 percent of U.S. grid power by 2030, with some new nuclear plants sited to support these hubs directly, reducing transmission losses. Unlike massive legacy plants that take decades to build and can go billions over budget, SMRs are manufactured in factories, shipped to the site and can be deployed individually or in clusters. They use passive safety systems, meaning they can shut themselves down without human intervention or electricity if something goes wrong.