WSJ: South Carolina to Reboot Giant Nuclear Project to Meet AI Demand

The Gilded Age of the Sunbelt has arrived.

WSJ:

“Santee Cooper, the big power provider in South Carolina, has tapped financial advisers to look for buyers that can restart construction on a pair of nuclear reactors that were mothballed years ago. 

The state-owned utility is betting interest will be strong, with tech giants such as Amazon.com and Microsoft in need of clean energy to fuel data centers for artificial-intelligence capabilities. 

Santee Cooper plans to announce Wednesday it is seeking proposals for buyers to complete the project at South Carolina’s sprawling V.C. Summer Nuclear Station, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The utility is working with bankers at Centerview Partners, which will accept proposals until May 5, the people said. …

A number of big nuclear reactors had gone dark amid competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable energy. But growing demand for electricity, including that needed to power data centers, has renewed interest in nuclear plants …”

Axios:

President Trump said in a virtual address at the World Economic Forum on Thursday that his administration is going to give “rapid approvals” to AI companies looking to build power plants attached to their data centers.

Why it matters: This makes it clear that a motivation for his national energy emergency declaration is easing construction of new fossil fueled-power plants to serve AI data centers.

Driving the news: Trump said that many people want to build power plants, which is “going to be a very big thing,” and intends to approve them under the emergency declaration “without having to go through years of waiting.”

The Trump plan is to reindustrialize America with AI to compete with China. He has obviously struck some kind of energy bargain with the tech bros that is being rolled out.

Note: The AI version of the Manhattan Project is creating a Wizard of Oz-like “superintelligence.”

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