Exclusive: small-scale nuclear power is a promising area of distributed generation development

The experience of Google, which had set itself the ambitious goal of powering its operations with carbon-neutral renewable energy, has shown that the development of renewable energy capacity cannot provide a stable supply and increasingly it is necessary to invest in gas-fired generation, which, in addition to its advantages, has the disadvantage of being a source of carbon emissions.

 

As a result, in October 2024, Google struck a deal with Kairos Power to buy 500MW small modular nuclear reactors. Google and Kairos Power plan to launch their first reactor in 2030, with plans to launch more units by 2035.

 

Kairos Power has currently received approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build two 35-megawatt test reactors in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. To date, there are no operating small modular reactors in the United States.

Amazon is interested in investing in building its own generation facilities based on small nuclear units (the company announced an investment of more than $500 million in small nuclear reactors two days after Google unveiled its agreement with Kairos Power). Constellation Energy said it plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, through a power purchase agreement with Microsoft.

 

The Small Energy Association sees the development of small nuclear generation as a promising direction. In the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), a pilot small nuclear power plant is currently under construction to supply power to remote areas (commissioning is scheduled for 2028). According to the General Scheme for the Location of Electric Power Industry Facilities in Russia, 11 low-capacity power units (with a total capacity of 864 MW) are planned to be commissioned by 2042.

‘Small modular nuclear reactors are advanced developments that, on the one hand, require lower erection costs compared to large generation facilities and, on the other hand, promise to accelerate the development of nuclear power, as they occupy less space and have a more optimised production process. At the same time, the development of small-scale nuclear power is a good prospect for the domestic nuclear industry in terms of development and introduction of new technologies,’ said Valery Zhikharev, Vice President of the Small-scale Power Association.

 

According to IAEA estimates, the need for small reactors until 2040 is from 0.5 to 1 thousand units. There is no market for small NPPs in the world today. But the environmental pressure on conventional power and the disadvantages of unconventional power create a promising niche for small nuclear power as one of the areas of distributed generation.

 

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