Nuclear power firm TerraPower and Sabey Data Centers (SDC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore the development and deployment of TerraPower’s Natrium microreactors into SDC’s current and future data center operations.

As part of the MoU, the two companies will explore the deployment of the Natrium plants in the Rocky Mountain region and Texas.

TerraPower_Natrium_Reactor
– TerraPower

The Natrium microreactor is a 345MW sodium-cooled fast reactor with an integrated energy storage system. According to Terra, the storage technology can boost the system output to 500MW for more than five and a half hours, allowing for integration with renewable energy.

"At its heart, TerraPower is an innovation-driven company, and we are thrilled to collaborate with Sabey to address the surging energy demands of data centers with clean, reliable, and adaptable solutions like the Natrium technology," said Chris Levesque, TerraPower president and CEO.

TerraPower and SDC will also explore multiple project execution structures to meet the exponential power demand of data centers.

“Our strategic collaboration with TerraPower represents a substantial move toward integrating clean, innovative power technologies into the heart of our operations,” says Tim Mirick, president of Sabey Data Centers.

Sabey Data Centers operates more than four million square feet across the US, with six data center sites across the US in Quincy, Seattle, and East Wenatchee, Washington; New York City; Austin, Texas; and Ashburn, Virginia. The company is a joint venture between Sabey Corporation and National Real Estate Advisors.

The first Natrium plant is being developed through the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, a public-private partnership. The project will come online by 2030 and, according to the company, will be the first commercial, utility-scale advanced nuclear power plant in the US.

In December, Terra announced a milestone in its construction process, awarding contracts for the first Natrium plant reactor enclosure system.

The deal with SDC is Terra’s first with a data center developer. However, several other small modular reactor (SMR) and microreactor firms have signed agreements with data centers over the past 12 months.

Earlier this month, Deep Fission, an SMR developer, partnered with Endeavour Energy, a US sustainable infrastructure developer, to develop and deploy 2GW of capacity across Endeavour's global portfolio of data centers.

In October, AWS signed three agreements with Energy Northwest, X-Energy, and Dominion Virginia to support the deployment of more than 600MW of power across Washington and Virginia.

Before this, Google signed a corporate agreement to purchase nuclear energy from multiple SMRs from Karios Power, with an expected deployment date in 2030.

Last year culminated in data center developer Switch signing a non-binding agreement to purchase up to 12GW of power from SMR firm Oklo through 2044.