Google teams with nuclear power giant to give reactors a tune-up

Google on Tuesday struck a deal with Constellation Energy for 3,590 megawatts of future energy supply, including nearly a gigawatt of new nuclear capacity, as the search and advertising giant tries to find enough energy to power its datacenter ambitions. The 20-year power purchase agreement will see Constellation, the largest purveyor of atomic energy in the US, bring an additional 890 megawatts of nuclear capacity online by making "targeted investments at multiple nuclear plants." We understand those investments will go toward upgrades to at least 11 existing nuclear plants across Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey through a process known as uprating. "By modernizing and upgrading turbines, steam generators, and digital control systems at operating plants, uprates deliver substantial capacity gains without the multi-year timelines or interconnection bottlenecks associated with greenfield construction," the power company explained in a statement. The other 2,700 megawatts the deal covers will come from other unspecified sources. …