Nuclear power emerging as solution for AI data center energy demand
As artificial intelligence infrastructure expands at an unprecedented pace, one of the biggest challenges facing the industry is not computing power — but electricity. A new collaboration between engineering firm AtkinsRéalis and NVIDIA highlights how nuclear energy could play a major role in powering the next generation of AI data centers.
The companies are exploring how nuclear power infrastructure, digital twins, and accelerated computing could be combined to support the development of large-scale AI facilities, sometimes referred to as AI factories.
The growing energy problem behind AI
The rapid growth of artificial intelligence, data centers, and high-performance computing is driving massive increases in global electricity demand. Training and running large AI models requires enormous computing power, which in turn requires reliable and continuous energy supply.
This is why governments and infrastructure developers are increasingly exploring nuclear energy as a low-carbon, baseload power source for future AI infrastructure.
AtkinsRéalis, a major engineering and nuclear company, is working with NVIDIA to explore how nuclear-powered infrastructure could support next-generation AI facilities. The collaboration will look at how AI-ready facilities could be designed, optimized, and deployed using digital twin technology and high-performance simulation tools.
Digital twins and AI infrastructure design
One of the key technologies involved in the collaboration is NVIDIA Omniverse, which allows companies to create detailed digital twins of infrastructure projects before construction begins.
Using digital twins, engineers can simulate infrastructure systems in a virtual environment, test different configurations, optimize performance, and identify potential issues before building in the real world. This can reduce costs, accelerate construction timelines, and improve safety and efficiency.
The companies are exploring how these tools could be used to design integrated infrastructure systems combining nuclear energy, power distribution, cooling systems, and large-scale AI computing facilities.
Nuclear power and AI factories
The concept of “AI factories” refers to large-scale data centers dedicated specifically to artificial intelligence workloads. These facilities require massive amounts of continuous electricity, making nuclear power an attractive option due to its reliability and low carbon emissions.
The collaboration will explore several areas including:
- Integrating nuclear power with AI data center infrastructure
- Using digital twins and simulation for infrastructure planning
- Improving engineering workflows with AI tools
- Accelerating construction and project delivery
- Optimizing power distribution and cooling systems
The partnership reflects a broader trend across the technology industry, where energy infrastructure is becoming a critical factor in the future of artificial intelligence development.
Energy becoming the limiting factor for AI growth
As AI models continue to grow in size and complexity, energy availability is increasingly becoming one of the biggest constraints on AI expansion.
Large technology companies, infrastructure providers, and governments are now exploring nuclear energy, renewable energy, and new power infrastructure solutions to support future data center growth.
The collaboration between AtkinsRéalis and NVIDIA shows how the future of artificial intelligence may depend not only on chips and software, but on power generation, infrastructure engineering, and energy strategy.
