As reported last week, the UN wants major AI firms to publicly disclose the full water, carbon, and land-use impact of their heavily consuming data centres. Now Nvidia, together with Valar Atomics, is pitching nuclear power as a way to reduce AI data centres' environmental footprint, according to Reuters.
The start-up demonstrated its microreactor powering Nvidia's Blackwell AI chip architecture in Utah. They claim it's the first time a small nuclear reactor has powered a data centre.
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The project focuses heavily on water conservation, as the old liquid cooling method is one of the biggest concerns in terms of environmental impact. Nvidia says its closed-loop design could cut facility cooling water "from around 2.6 million gallons per megawatt per year to near zero". Valar adds that its high-temperature reactor uses helium rather than water for the same purpose.
The announcement of the partnership comes amid growing backlash against these data centres' power and water demands. US companies seek private "behind-the-meter" power plants, including gas and emerging nuclear reactors. In the meantime, the Trump administration pushes to expand nuclear deployment and to speed up small reactor projects.