AI promises to be the biggest thing in information technology since the internet told people they had mail. The problem is that the data centers needed to support AI systems are so hungry for electricity that they will account for up to 40% of power-demand growth in the US alone by 2035.

Because of this, tech companies are scrambling to find reliable, 24/7 sources of electricity to power and cool these centers, and that slams hard into the energy policies of many nations that assumed that demand would remain relatively level or even decline and that grids would have to accept a certain level of intermittency. The result is that these companies are looking for ways to secure independent power sources, including building or recommissioning nuclear power plants.