This nuclear reactor is different from everyone else. It has been expressly designed for data centers

The proliferation of large data centers for artificial intelligence (AI) raises a very serious energy problem. Both, in fact, that the US Department of Energy is considering the possibility that companies that have large data centers Dedicated to the training of AI models install in their vicinity A small nuclear power plant that is able to meet your energy needs.

This strategy would also reinforce the US bet for energy sources that do not emit greenhouse gases. What is not clear is yet what investment the technology companies and what subsidies will contribute the government will assume. At the moment some of the great technology firms have already invested in nuclear energy, although not necessarily in fission. Microsoft, for example, It has an agreement with Helion Energy to obtain in the future energy from its reactors of nuclear fusion.

An extra modular reactor adapted to the needs of data centers

The image we have published on the cover of this article is a recreation made by the American company Aalo Atomics of its extra modular reactor Aal Pod. This machine has a lot in common with SMR reactors (Small Modular Reactro compact modular reactor) of which We have spoken to you in other articlesbut, according to its creators, they uncheck of the latter in something very important: its modularity is even greater. This peculiarity is precisely the According to them It makes it suitable for data centers.

However, the reactor of Fourth Generation Nuclear Fission Aalo POD has another quality that, on paper, is very attractive: its enormous flexibility. And, again according to his designers, he can work in a completely independent way of the electricity grid, coupled to it, and even, hybrid. In this way, the owners of the data centers can use the strategy that better solves their needs by balancing the electricity produced by the reactor and the one that is capable of giving them the existing electrical infrastructure. Sounds good.

The prototype that Aal Atomics has made known is capable of delivering 50 MWE (electric megawatts), but its modularity allows you to climb this machine to be able to deliver several hundred MWE, and even thousands of MWE. The image we have is a recreation, but it allows us to intuit what the architecture of this reactor is. Interestingly, it looks more like a linear particle accelerator than a conventional nuclear fission reactor. An interesting note: Each Aal POD incorporates five micro-recruitors Aal-1 paired with a single electricity generating turbine.

However, this is not all. The heart of the Aalo Atomics strategy consists in developing a production technology that allows to manufacture the modules of each Aal Pod Industrial and chain. As if they were cars. Or reaction turbines for airplanes. According to this company, this approach will allow them to install their reactor with the data centers in less time, occupying less space and for less money than a conventional SMR reactor would cost.

In addition, again according to Aalo Atomics, each micro -reactor can be resumed at any time without the need to stop others with which it is matched and refrigerated by sodium, so it is not necessary to have a water source close. The promises of this company on paper paint well. Now the important thing is to materialize everything you have announced in a final product that lives up to expectations. Data centers continue to proliferate. And they don’t rest.

Image | Aalo Atomics

More information | Aalo Atomics

In Xataka | Nuclear fission has been waiting for a type of fuel to take off. And he already caresses it with the tip of the fingers