Four nuclear power plants are planning to build a power plant at Texas A&M University. Texas officials see it as a way to meet the burgeoning electricity demand from AI data centers. The university is seeking $200 million from state legislators to help fund nuclear projects.
Texas’ largest university plans to become a testbed for small reactors that will help meet the state’s surge in electricity demand from data centers, population growth and extreme weather.
The Texas A&M University System said Tuesday it is leasing its land to four nuclear power plants specialising in small modular reactors or SMRs, about a third of the size of traditional nuclear power plants. The startup is aimed at building commercial nuclear reactors that can power the university and the Texas power grid, officials said.
To date, no commercial SMRs have been built in the US, and few are present in Russia and China. The development is increasing speed, especially as the high-tech giants search for low-carbon, 24-hour electricity, searching for 24-hour electricity in data centers with artificial intelligence computing capabilities. However, it is unclear when the first SMR will arrive online in the US, with forecasts ranging from 5 to 15 years.
“We hope that we are the first of many locations with proven track record in new energy technology,” said Joe Elabdo, Deputy Research Premier at Texas A&M. Not only is it rising at a very fast pace, nationally and globally, as businesses build data centers.”
The main grid operator in Texas predicts that by 2030, requests to connect to the grid from data centers and crypto mining facilities will almost double the demand for electricity. Similar trends are unfolding in states such as Virginia, Arizona and Nebraska.
The arrival of Chinese artificial intelligence company Deepseek – promised to be a cheaper and more energy-efficient model – raised its nuclear stocks on January 27th, raising questions about AI-driven electricity demand. Donald Trump’s Stargate formation, Stargate, a joint venture between Oracle, Openai and SoftBank, is building AI data centers, including Texas.
Even before the announcement of Stargate, Texas was already dealing with a stressful power grid. Its vulnerability was exposed during the winter storm of 2021, freezing gas production, power plants and wind turbines, leaving millions of people for days to millions. I did. At least 200 people have died.
A small core promise
Since then, Texas officials have been trying to strengthen the grid, including making the state a leader in advanced nuclear power. In November, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott outlined a strategy that includes seven recommendations, including a new state office and an energy fund to support advanced nuclear projects.
Rendering of the SMR test site at the Texas A&M University campus. Texas A&M University System
SMR advocates could be a source of electricity 24/7, unlike gas plants built for power data centers, at least in the short term. It claims there is. It can be deployed faster and cheaper than traditional nuclear power plants that suffer from cost overruns and delays. The country’s latest large nuclear power plant, built by Georgia’s power, has reached $17 billion, seven years behind and exceeded its budget.
However, some academic critics worry that SMR will have a similar fate and leave taxpayers on the hook. In 2023, startup Nussscale cancelled what was set for the first commercial SMR project in the US after utility customers retreated due to increased costs and delays. The project was supported by a $1.4 billion cost-share deal with the federal government. Environmental groups are also concerned about nuclear-generated radioactive waste and storage locations.
Texas A&M is partnering with four other nuclear startups: Kairos Power, Natura Resources, Terrestrial Energy, and Aalo Atomics. The university is asking Texas legislators for $200 million for a new, proven energy position.
The proposed Texas A&M site is large enough to accommodate multiple SMRs with multiple gig watts of power, university officials said. It’s enough to run around 200,000 homes. Until now, no site was suitable for building a cluster of reactors that could supply the power needed for AI innovation and other projects, officials said.
Kairos Power co-founder and CEO Mike Laufer told Business Insider that the company continues to assess the number of reactors built at the Texas A&M site. In October, Kairos said he had signed a contract with Google and plans to purchase power from multiple SMRs.
Douglass Robison, founder and president of Natura Resources, said the company plans to build one commercial reactor.
“We need to demonstrate that we can license an Advanced Reactor,” Robison said. “That’s one of the big concerns, especially from the investment community.”
Both Kairos and Natura have been allowed to build for demonstration SMRS from the Nuclear Regulation Authority, but not commercially-scale plants.
Corrected: February 5, 2025 – Previous versions of this story mistook the surname of Texas A&M’s Deputy Research Prime Minister. It’s Joe Elabdo.
