Another day, another data center cozying up to nuclear power.
This time its an Nvidia-backed company called Ubitus K.K., based in Tokyo. The company is looking to "acquire land in Kyoto, Shimane or a prefecture in Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, primarily because of the availability of nuclear power in the region", according to a new report from Bloomberg.
Chief Executive Officer Wesley Kuo announced the plans in an interview on Thursday last week. The company already has two data centers used for gaming and is planning a third for AI.
Kuo commented: “Unless we have other, better, efficient and cheap energy, nuclear is still the most competitive option in terms of cost and the scale of supply. For industrial use — especially AI — they need a constant, high-capacity supply.”
The Bloomberg report says that in Japan, nuclear power remains controversial due to the 2011 Fukushima disaster and strict post-disaster regulations, with only 33 reactors available, many still inactive.
Recall, following the news of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant restart near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the Biden administration supplying a $1.5 billion loan to resurrect Holtec's Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, along with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google all jumping on the nuclear trade via the "next AI trade," the atomic era continued gaining steam last week with news that another dormant nuclear plant, this time in Iowa, is slated for a possible restart.
On a Wednesday earnings call, NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum told investors that the company may restart the shuttered 600-megawatt Duane Arnold Energy Center (DAEC), Iowa's only nuclear power plant. It's located on the west bank of the Cedar River, about eight miles northwest of Cedar Rapids.
The company said on its earnings call:
"As a top operator of all forms of power generation, we often get asked about nuclear and gas," Ketchum told investors.
He explained, "Let me start with nuclear. Nuclear will play a role, but there are some practical limitations. Remember, on a national level, we expect we are going to need to add 900 gigawatts of new generation to the grid by 2040," adding, "There are only a few nuclear plants that can be recommissioned in an economic way. We are currently evaluating the recommissioning of our Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa as one example."
The latest news from big tech firms diving into nuclear and reviving the industry provides a substantial tailwind for our "Next AI Trade" which we laid out in April as our long-term favorite trade, and where we outlined various investment opportunities for powering up America, playing out.
Here's our latest coverage of the big atomic revival:
And for a trip down memory lane: take a step back to December 2020, nearly four years ago, when we first introduced the nuclear theme to readers with the headline: "Buy Uranium: Is This The Beginning Of The Next ESG Craze."