Nuclear power presents a reliable solution to meet this increased demand, by offering stable baseload power to ensure a consistent supply of electricity that can help stabilize the electrical grid and that AI infrastructure can depend on.
Can Nuclear Infrastructure Help Meet the Energy Demand of AI
Q&A with Jason Kraus, Global Asset Management Solutions Architect | Accruent
Tell us about yourself and your role with Accruent.
I have a very fun role where I am part of the sales team, but also closely aligned with our product owners, customer success, services, and marketing to ensure alignment between what the industry is asking of us as technology providers and our vision for our solutions.
I’ve been part of Accruent for nearly six years, with previous experience in food and beverage manufacturing, petrochemicals, and clinical information systems, where I’ve worked in both analyst and project management capacities. These are disparate industries, but my focus and passion has always been around process knowledge and providing solutions to the next challenge that my teams are facing.
What role can aging nuclear infrastructure realistically play in meeting the skyrocketing energy demands of AI, and what are the limitations?
Power consumption by data centers in the U.S. is on course to account for almost half of the growth in electricity demand between now and 2030.
With an already strained power grid, AI is compounding the problem. Nuclear power presents a reliable solution to meet this increased demand, by offering stable baseload power to ensure a consistent supply of electricity that can help stabilize the electrical grid and that AI infrastructure can depend on. Additionally, investments focused on R&D and the adoption of advanced technologies such as Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) allow for faster deployment of nuclear capacity, making it possible to scale energy production quickly and efficiently, which is especially crucial as demand will only continue to increase.
While nuclear power plants will play a strategic role in meeting the energy demands, there are some limitations to consider. Building new facilities can be a long process often requiring close to a decade between pouring the foundation and grid connection. This doesn’t even account for the regulatory hurdles that need to be met prior to construction. While older plants that have been decommissioned may also require lengthy maintenance and construction timelines, at the moment, they still present a quicker option than new construction. With over 50 nuclear power plants in the U.S. housing nearly 100 reactors, many over 40 years old, the urgency to modernize operational and decommissioned facilities is mounting.
In 2023, 22 countries pledged to triple global nuclear energy capacity by 2050 to support the goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. And, although attitudes have become more favorable as it's increasingly recognized as a form of clean energy, public concern about nuclear waste remains a key issue. At the same time, scaling nuclear development will require reliable access to critical minerals, which could present supply chain and geopolitical challenges.
Big Tech companies are already investing in nuclear, including Small Modular Reactor (SMR) development and procurement of nuclear-powered energy for data centers, signaling that this isn’t a future concept—it’s a present priority The recertification project at Three Mile island to fuel Microsoft’s AI data center is paving the way, with the computing and energy industries watching to understand options, impacts, and best practices to meet this surging AI and Cloud Infrastructure demand.
How are these demands forcing a re-evaluation of what “ready-to-run” really means for aging plants?
The Vogtle plant in Georgia, which came online in mid-2023 after 14 years of construction, is now the largest in the U.S. and highlights both the potential and the long timelines of traditional builds. While such projects take years to complete, the investment is worthwhile given the longevity of the facilities. In the U.S., nuclear plants are initially licensed for 40 years, but that shouldn’t be confused with their true lifespan. Many are built to operate safely for over a century and can obtain multiple license extensions.
However, today’s operational demands – from stricter safety standards to evolving energy needs – are redefining what “ready-to-run” means for both active and recommissioned plants. It’s no longer just about having a functional reactor; it’s about ensuring every system, from safety instrumentation to control architectures, meets modern reliability targets. This is evident in efforts to bring back retired plants like Palisades in Michigan and Three Mile Island, where “ready-to-run” now requires a full re-analysis of reactor design, maintenance programs, and digital monitoring systems. Advances in sensor technology and control systems are key to meeting these new expectations, ensuring aging plants can operate longer, more safely, and more efficiently in today’s energy landscape.
What are the risks and hidden costs of fragmented or inaccessible documentation in legacy energy infrastructure?
The risks of inaccessible documentation are significant and often only fully realized when they transition from theoretical concerns into real-world events or audit findings. However, these risks go beyond just inaccessible files. They tie back to the rapidly retiring workforce.
The experts that first began codifying and managing digital and paper documentation in parallel over 30 years ago, are walking out of facilities at a pace not seen in the modern age. As these older workers leave with full mental maps of their facilities and control systems, they leave the next generation and maintenance staff without that valuable knowledge, since they may not be fully captured in the documentation.
The cost of this shift hits more than just day-to-day operations. Many projects are starting with incomplete or untrustworthy As-Built or As-Maintained documentation. If the current files are not accurate or not trusted, that must be rectified at project inception, usually starting a project with an immediate Change Order for a walk-down and design update cycle, prolonging the process.
As we’ve seen, the demand for power isn’t waiting for these projects to start – it’s here and on an upward trajectory the upper boundary we do not yet know.
Without nuclear coming online to support the grid, there's also a major risk the grid won't be able to meet accelerating demands from AI and data infrastructure. As legacy documentation issues and workforce retirements slow the pace of recommissioning and modernization projects, the safe cushion between available power and up-to-the-minute demand continues to shrink. If nuclear assets aren’t restored, upgraded, or replaced fast enough, we risk more moments where the grid simply can’t keep up, leading to instability, outages, and missed opportunities to decarbonize at scale.
How can facilities modernize their information systems without compromising safety or regulatory standards?
Modernizing these systems aligns with supporting compliance and safety standards, as accurate, accessible, and actionable information is crucial to these standards.
Utilizing a modern platform and going through diligent migration processes will be key for this. As someone who implemented a system like this, data migration is challenging and requires an element of quality-centered focus to be successful. The best way to approach this is to have a team focused on data migration over and above the general configuration and change management. This team needs to be not just IT or technical resources; but there must be key representatives from the facility operations and maintenance group invested as well.
Technology can also help bridge requirements while leveraging modern approaches. For instance, many nuclear operators have an element in their requirements that the data must be on-site and that precludes a cloud-based or SaaS software solution from their options.
However, teams need to consider a SaaS product that also can push backups on-site for a local Disaster Recovery instance while day-to-day operations and projects continue to run through a Saas framework that is secure, fully disaster recovery enabled, and constantly patched and updated. Options exist to ensure organization’s teams are using the most modern solution possible while still meeting requirements that may have been drafted while Jimmy Carter was in office.
What lessons from past nuclear infrastructure projects can inform how we modernize documentation and systems?
Fitness for service in the tools that teams rely on has always been critical, but too often we don’t apply the same level of scrutiny to a software system as we do to other toolbox-type tools. A tool that manages, gathers, and presents crucial information to your teams is just that — crucial.
This becomes even more pressing when we consider that global electricity consumption per capita is not declining, yet the workforce available to maintain and operate the infrastructure that generates and transmits that power is stable at best, and in many cases, declining.
In this context, properly constructed solutions, or systems that integrate drawings, corrective work, preventive (or even predictive) maintenance, project plans, site and asset data (GIS, design specifications), and operational parameters, become a true force multiplier. These systems enable teams to scale, adapt, and sustain operations effectively in the face of mounting pressure and limited resources.
Having worked across various industries, I've seen how critical infrastructure depends on accurate data, consistent processes, and reliable technology. As nuclear facilities are pushed to operate longer and smarter, aligning people, systems, and data will be just as important as the physical reactors themselves.
Jason Kraus is a Global Asset Management Solutions (AMS) Architect with Accruent, focusing on creating value for customers around facilities, equipment, and process improvements. He has 15 years of experience in enterprise Information Technology organizations in roles from Analyst to Site Lead to Project Manager across industries such as Food Production, O&G/Petrochem, and Clinical services. Jason holds a Bachelor of Management of Information Systems from Wichita State University.
The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of AltEnergyMag
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