AtkinsRéalis to partner with Nvidia on nuclear-powered data centre design
Canadian engineering firm AtkinsRéalis has announced a partnership with tech company Nvidia that will deliver nuclear-powered data centre designs.
Through the collaboration, the firms said they will develop energy sources that can power the development of hyperscale centres that may cause strain to traditional power grids.
"Integrating nuclear power on site changes the scale and layout of an AI campus compared with a conventional data‑centre build, but it also enables more resilient, efficient and sustainable design," AtkinsRéalis Nuclear head of digital Sam Stephens told Global Construction Review.
Designs will likely range in capacity from 740MWe (0.74 GW) to 1000MWe (1 GW), roughly comparable to the output of a small nuclear reactor.
The centres will use Nvidia's proprietary computing technologies for the streamlining of the planning process and integration into existing systems.
Large-scale factories
"To scale nuclear power quickly enough, we will need new ways of working, and digitisation promises to provide that breakthrough," said Stephens, adding that beyond powering hyperscale AI centres, the move could also improve local grids.
"A nuclear power plant would be connected to the grid in order to provide essential services and support to local communities and infrastructure, not just an AI factory. So, there are opportunities to share electric infrastructure with the data centre," he said.
"We also see opportunities to use waste heat from the power plant with absorption chillers to increase sustainability and reduce operating costs."
"We see this as highly scalable."
A new model for hyperscale development
AtkinsRéalis' said the addition of nuclear power will increase each project's building footprint, but ultimately generate less carbon than existing data centre design solutions.
"Co‑locating AI data centres with nuclear power increases site scale, but it enables a more integrated, efficient and sustainable infrastructure model, where power, cooling and grid connectivity are designed together, not separately," Stephens continued.
"We expect an acceleration of the commissioning of these projects as operators look to secure longer-term power supplies."
In spite of concerns about material costs and energy availability, data centres have occupied an increasing share of the AEC industry's commercial planning sector in the United States.
Spending on such projects is expected to account for about 32 per cent of all new commercial construction spending this year in America alone, according to Bloomberg.
This month, Dezeen covered news of a study which linked the development of data centres to heat island effects in over 6,000 global locations.
The idea for co-located nuclear power plants first appeared in Dezeen in 2022, when a £210 million ($285 million USD) grant from the UK government was announced that would help the British aerospace manufacturer Rolls-Royce develop their own Small Modular Reactor (SMR) facilities.
AtkinsRéalis' (formerly SNC-Lavalin) British subsidiary Atkins previously signed on as a key delivery partner for The Line mega city component of NEOM.
The photo is by Aerovista Luchtfotografie via Shutterstock.
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