First Data Center-Specific Nuclear Plant to Begin Construction in 2027
TerraPower, a nuclear innovation company backed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, plans to start construction of its first nuclear plant dedicated to powering data centers in 2027. The company expects to formally announce the project later this year. If completed, it will become TerraPower’s second nuclear plant, following its demonstration facility in Wyoming. TerraPower has not disclosed the exact location or the customer for the project, but industry observers suggest the agreement Meta reached with the company in January may be related.
Meta has agreed to purchase electricity from up to eight Natrium reactors developed by TerraPower to meet the growing power demands driven by AI computing and data center expansion. The deal underscores the urgent need among tech giants for long-term, stable, and clean energy solutions while providing market validation for TerraPower’s technology.
Natrium Reactor Combines Energy Storage to Flexibly Manage Power Demand
TerraPower’s Natrium reactor uses a sodium-cooled design integrated with a molten-salt thermal energy storage system, enabling it to provide 345MW of stable baseload power under normal operation. During peak demand, the system can release stored thermal energy to increase output to 500MW for over five hours. This design avoids the limitations of traditional nuclear plants, which struggle to rapidly adjust output due to hardware constraints, making it particularly suitable for AI data centers with highly variable power loads.