Rolls-Royce is in talks with Hyper-Scale tech companies to power large scale data centres with mini nuclear reactors as early as 2030.
A Rolls-Royce lead consortium plans to launch small nuclear reactors for cloud operators. The engineering group is spearheading a project to design and build flat-pack plants, called small modular reactors (SMRs).
SMR’s are designed for sustainable, zero-carbon electricity supply. The company is currently in talks with Hyper-scale cloud providers about the possibility of using small reactors for their large-scale data center applications either connected to or independent of the grid.
The SMR’s are being developed with financial assistance from the British government. The consortium announced £215 million in funding in 2020 delivered through the Low Cost Nuclear (LCN) programme from 2021 onwards, as part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The LCN challenge aims to position the UK as a global leader in the provision of nuclear co-generation. SMRs will be a reliable source of baseload green power and will help energy-intensive industries like data centers bridge the technology gap and transition to zero-carbon.
