This Speakout was written by Robert McTaggart, assistant department head of chemistry, biochemistry and physics at South Dakota State University.

Data centers, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies, and internet videos of cute kittens may consume an ever-growing percentage of our energy in the future. Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google now want to power their data centers with small nuclear reactors, as their carbon emissions have risen by up to 50 percent.

We will build better computer chips that are more energy efficient, and add more power from natural gas, renewables, and energy storage. But without nuclear power these companies will blow past any meaningful targets for future carbon emissions.

The problem confronting a new nuclear renaissance is that we have only built one nuclear power plant since 1979 (in Georgia). And that became more expensive because our domestic supply chain was not robust enough. Funny how that happens when nuclear plants do not get built for a while. We will have to start where we are.

Although our nuclear power plants produce more clean energy today due to maintenance and upgrades, that will not be enough … and it may take a while to build the new reactors. However, we can restart nuclear reactors that were previously shut down for economic reasons.

Current plans include re-opening the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan in 2025 and restarting a plant at Three Mile Island by 2028 to power Microsoft with nuclear energy.

Now NextEra Energy is considering re-opening the Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa after interest from data centers.

Restarting a shutdown nuclear plant allows one to reconnect to established transmission corridors for delivering electricity. As would building small nuclear reactors at existing nuclear sites or where coal plants may have shut down.

Some older reactors will be replaced with newer and better versions of the water-cooled reactor. If operators were to walk away from such a reactor, power levels would simply oscillate about an average instead of increasing exponentially. Moreover, the new reactors avoid meltdowns by removing heat in an emergency without external water or power.

In the longer term, reactors cooled by gases like carbon dioxide or molten salts will join the mix. By 2030, Google aims to get its electricity from the molten-salt-cooled SMRs of Kairos Power.

The lower pressures and higher temperatures make such reactors safer and more efficient. Higher temperatures facilitate the production of industrial process heat and the consumption of nuclear waste as fuel.

Providing flexible power to work with renewables or being small enough for a town, a military base, a university, or a hospital are still important for small modular reactors. But their potential to be mass produced and provide consistent, 24/7 clean power is becoming important for delivering the bulk amounts of electricity that data centers will require.