Potential Impact of Nuclear Energy on Data Centers

Publish date: 20/01/2026

This report explores the challenges of data center expansion, their future energy trends and evaluates how advanced nuclear technologies, small modular reactors (SMRs), could support the growth while advancing decarbonization goals and enhancing energy resilience or operational reliability.

This report is based on a literature review, studying the evolving relationship between data centers and energy systems, with a focus on nuclear power.

Key Findings

Baseload power is essential – Data centers, especially AI‑focused ones, require continuous, uninterrupted electricity supply to provide their services and ensure cost-effective operation, making dispatchable baseload electricity generation valuable.

Rapid growth of computing demand – Training and using large language models (LLMs) requires vast computational resources. As new LLMs are developed, the computing cost keeps increasing. For example, training GPT-4 required 50 times more electricity than the training of GPT-3. In total, GPT-4 training consumed over 50 GWh of electricity.

SMRs offer promising characteristics – Modularity, scalability, and the ability to operate off‑grid make SMRs well‑suited to power‑intensive facilities, though regulatory and commercialization uncertainties remain.

Summary of studies on electricity demand growth in European data centers. Note that the darker circle indicates estimates while lighter circles and dotted lines indicate projections.

Source: Kamiya, G. and Bertoldi, P., (2024) “Energy Consumption in Data Centres and Broadband Communication Networks in the EU, Publications Office of the European Union”, Luxembourg, doi:10.2760/706491, JRC135926. Edited.

Overview of WP1 Task 1.3k

Data centers have become foundational to the digital economy, supporting everything from cloud computing to social media and online banks. Their electricity demand is rising rapidly, driven by advances in artificial intelligence and large language models, cloud services and energy‑intensive activities such as cryptocurrency mining. Traditional decarbonization pathways relying solely on variable renewables struggle to meet the continuous 24/7 load profile of data centers, renewing interest in dispatchable, reliable, low‑carbon energy sources like nuclear power.

Nuclear energy and SMRs align closely with the operational requirements of modern data centers. Their ability to provide continuous and carbon‑free baseload power supports both operational reliability and decarbonization objectives. SMRs offer promising features such as scalability and modularity, although uncertainties remain regarding deployment timelines, regulatory frameworks and cost reductions. Despite that, nuclear energy is anticipated to play a significant role in the future energy mix for data centers. Recent developments show that data center companies are willing to be in the forefront of SMR deployment, with all major tech companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon announcing agreements and investments in nuclear power and SMRs.

For more information, do not hesitate to contact

Mr. Jussi-Pekka IKONEN at Jussi-Pekka.Ikonen@vtt.fi.

You can read the whole report in the Downloads section or on this link.