Facebook's parent company Meta wants nuclear energy to power its massive New Albany data center, Prometheus, while other data center giants are also moving to offset energy demands and driving up utility bills in Ohio.
Meta is hiring California-based nuclear energy company Oklo to build several of its small-scale nuclear reactors in Pike County at the site of a former weapons-grade uranium enrichment plant. If completed, it would bring the first new nuclear power generation to the state since the 1970s.
Meanwhile, Microsoft announced a commitment to "pay its own way" to ensure data centers don't increase electric prices and will also minimize water use and replenish more water than its data centers currently use.
Central Ohio is one of the largest data center hubs in the country with over 500 data centers in operation and another 200 planned before 2030. The large structures are considered to be one of the driving forces behind increased utility costs for residents of the region.
Public backlash to higher electric and water bills is rising, with many people demanding American Electric Power of Ohio drop its case before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, which could lead to high rates.
Oklo cofounder and Chief Operating Officer Caroline DeWitte told WOSU that deals to increase energy generation, like her company's agreement with Meta, can help offset the costs to upgrade the electric grid. She said more companies should consider investing to contribute to the electric grid like Meta did, instead of putting the burden of costs on consumers.
"I think it's hitting a nerve, especially in Ohio, but all over the place where people are tired of it and they feel like it's not their faults," DeWitte said. "Why should they be footing the bill for these other groups?"
Meta's Prometheus requires over one gigawatt of power to operate. The company also just purchased another 429 acres in New Albany and Jersey Township near Prometheus, signaling more investment in the future.
Amazon, Microsoft and Google's parent company Alphabet have also invested heavily in the region to build new data centers.
Oklo nuclear reactors to power data centers at site of Pike County uranium enrichment center
Oklo's reactors will produce 1.2 gigawatts of power, pumping it into the region's electric grid PJM. Meta is also investing in Ohio's two nuclear reactors in northern Ohio, the Perry Nuclear Plant and the Davis-Besse Plant, to increase capacity.
Those two power plants were at the center of the FirstEnergy $61 million nuclear bailout bribery scandal, that sent former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder to prison for 20 years.
DeWitte said the technology behind Oklo's reactors is still at its base level the same. Fission, when atoms are split, is still happening. DeWitte said "there's some magic" to what's different about Oklo's reactors. Instead of using water to cool reactors, Oklo using a metal coolant.
Another advantage to these reactors, DeWitte said, is that they are much safer than older nuclear technology that built Ohio's two nuclear power plants in the 20th century.
"As long as the geometry and the materials are like that, that fundamental physical reaction to heating up ensures that there's basically no meltdown and in that case, no damage to the fuel, no release of radioactive materials. So that's the technology we wanted to build on was this inherent safety and this capability to use nuclear waste as fuel," DeWitte said.
Safety will be a big deal for this site because of the area's fraught history with nuclear testing.
The Pike County site is the home of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which contaminated the air, soil and groundwater with hazardous and radioactive waste. The plant began operation in Pike County in the early 1950s and for decades enriched uranium for the military and for commercial nuclear power plants.
That large-scale enrichment process ended in 2001. Since then, the U.S. Department of Energy has worked to clean up the site.
Zahn’s Corner Middle School in Piketon permanently closed in May 2019 after radiation contamination was found inside.
DeWitte said there is a big difference between decades-old uranium enrichment processes and modern clean energy. She points to the company's reactors using a negligible amount of water.
DeWitte also said the reactors will have a much smaller footprint and the company plans to surround the facilities with wetlands and parkland. She said this is intended to have minimal impact on the land.
"At Oklo, you know, care so much about this because we want clean energy and care about the environment. And so, you, know, that's part of just like our, I think our core of like our mission," DeWitte said.
DeWitte said before anything is built, the company and Meta will have to go through approval processes with the government and with PJM.
