Google has announced the site of its first nuclear reactor as part of its 2024 deal with startup Kairos Power. The plant, titled Hermes 2, will be located in Oakridge, Tennessee, and it will supply Google with 50 megawatts (MW) of power under a long-term purchase agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). This plant is the first in a 500-megawatt deal which involves multiple small modular reactors (SMRs) providing power to the tech giant’s data centers in Montgomery County, Tennessee, and Jackson County, Alabama. Hermes 2 is scheduled to begin operations in 2030. “Nuclear is the bedrock of the future of energy security. Google stepping in and helping shoulder the burden of the cost and risk for first-of-a-kind nuclear projects not only helps Google get to those solutions, but it keeps us from having to burden our customers with development of that technology,” TVA CEO Don Moul said in a statement. The deal is expected to reach its full 50 MW potential in 2035. The financial details of the deal have not been revealed. Last month, Google announced a partnership with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a private company spun from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The tech giant would buy 200 megawatts of clean fusion power from what CFS describes as the world’s first grid-scale fusion power plant, known as ARC, based in Chesterfield County, Virginia. ARC is expected to generate 400 megawatts of clean, zero-carbon power in the early 2030s, which is enough energy to power large industrial sites or roughly 150,000 homes, according to CFS.

Full report : Google taps nuclear power for data centers, reveals first reactor site.

For more see the OODA Company Profile on Commonwealth Fusion Systems.