3 ms·

US to See $350B Nuclear Boom to Power AI

6 points by aanet 1y ago

aanet 1y ago
"Soaring demand for electricity will drive a $350 billion nuclear spending boom in the US, boosting output from reactors by 63% by 2050, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. The key driver is power-hungry data centers running artificial intelligence systems, and that investment will add 53 gigawatts of reactor capacity, bringing the total nuclear fleet to 159 gigawatts, the research company said in a report Monday. "
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
toomuchtodo 1y ago
None of this power will come online for at least a decade. > The ramp-up is expected to start slowly. BI forecasts only 9 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity of any type will be added in the next decade, and widespread deployment of SMRs won’t start until after 2035. The world deploys 1GW of solar PV every 15 hours currently.
- WorldPeas 1y ago
  To me the ideal solution is batteries. We build out the battery buffer capacity now with solar, and plug the distributed SMRs in place as the PV panels expire in 20-30 years
  - toomuchtodo 1y ago
    Solar will only keep getting cheaper, SMRs will never be able to compete. Old solar will get re-powered with newer, more efficient solar at a lower cost. Batteries and solar are cheaper than all other power sources in most of the world, and they will continue to decline in cost as manufacturing capacity increases. Solar PV out of China is 8 cents/watt, batteries are at $52/kwh (as of this comment). This is a con to slow the low carbon energy transition, when combined with the US federal government kneecapping renewable subsidies. That's great and all they're going to supposedly add 9GW of SMRs to the US grid within the next ten years, but there are ~5k US datacenters today, and they are still trying to build more. And who will be held accountable if they build zero SMRs? No one. https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/solar-panel-prices-have-fallen-by-around-20-every-time-global-capacity-doubled https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/solar-panel-prices-... https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/solar-electricity-every-hour-of-every-day-is-here-and-it-changes-everything/ https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/solar-electricity-e... https://electrek.co/2025/09/24/eia-solar-and-wind-crush-coal-with-20-percent-more-power-in-2025/ https://electrek.co/2025/09/24/eia-solar-and-wind-crush-coal... https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64705 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64705 https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/images/figure_6_01_c.png https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/images/figure_6_01_c... https://reneweconomy.com.au/watershed-moment-big-battery-storage-prices-hit-record-low-in-huge-china-auction/ https://reneweconomy.com.au/watershed-moment-big-battery-sto... https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/china-is-quietly-saving-the-world https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/china-is-quietly-saving-the-wo... (the US currently deploys ~50GW of utility scale solar PV annually, and installed 10GW of batteries in 2024, with 20GW expected in 2025)
    - toomuchtodo 1y ago
      Additional citations: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45482085 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45482085 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45182003 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45182003

6 points by aanet 1y ago

"Soaring demand for electricity will drive a $350 billion nuclear spending boom in the US, boosting output from reactors by 63% by 2050, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. The key driver is power-hungry data centers running artificial intelligence systems, and that investment will add 53 gigawatts of reactor capacity, bringing the total nuclear fleet to 159 gigawatts, the research company said in a report Monday. "

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

toomuchtodo 1y ago

None of this power will come online for at least a decade. > The ramp-up is expected to start slowly. BI forecasts only 9 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity of any type will be added in the next decade, and widespread deployment of SMRs won’t start until after 2035. The world deploys 1GW of solar PV every 15 hours currently.

WorldPeas 1y ago
To me the ideal solution is batteries. We build out the battery buffer capacity now with solar, and plug the distributed SMRs in place as the PV panels expire in 20-30 years
- toomuchtodo 1y ago
  Solar will only keep getting cheaper, SMRs will never be able to compete. Old solar will get re-powered with newer, more efficient solar at a lower cost. Batteries and solar are cheaper than all other power sources in most of the world, and they will continue to decline in cost as manufacturing capacity increases. Solar PV out of China is 8 cents/watt, batteries are at $52/kwh (as of this comment). This is a con to slow the low carbon energy transition, when combined with the US federal government kneecapping renewable subsidies. That's great and all they're going to supposedly add 9GW of SMRs to the US grid within the next ten years, but there are ~5k US datacenters today, and they are still trying to build more. And who will be held accountable if they build zero SMRs? No one. https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/solar-panel-prices-have-fallen-by-around-20-every-time-global-capacity-doubled https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/solar-panel-prices-... https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/solar-electricity-every-hour-of-every-day-is-here-and-it-changes-everything/ https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/solar-electricity-e... https://electrek.co/2025/09/24/eia-solar-and-wind-crush-coal-with-20-percent-more-power-in-2025/ https://electrek.co/2025/09/24/eia-solar-and-wind-crush-coal... https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64705 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64705 https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/images/figure_6_01_c.png https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/images/figure_6_01_c... https://reneweconomy.com.au/watershed-moment-big-battery-storage-prices-hit-record-low-in-huge-china-auction/ https://reneweconomy.com.au/watershed-moment-big-battery-sto... https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/china-is-quietly-saving-the-world https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/china-is-quietly-saving-the-wo... (the US currently deploys ~50GW of utility scale solar PV annually, and installed 10GW of batteries in 2024, with 20GW expected in 2025)
  - toomuchtodo 1y ago
    Additional citations: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45482085 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45482085 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45182003 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45182003