The 345 MW Natrium reactor stores its heat in liquid sodium, allowing it to keep up with sudden changes in the load of GPU clusters without giant batteries.
AI data centres pose a low-profile problem for electricity producers: their consumption does not change slowly. When thousands of GPUs start or complete a calculation phase, the power call falls and goes back in seconds, a speed that conventional turbines don't resist.
This is the argument put forward by TerraPower, the nuclear company founded by Bill Gates, for its 345 megawatt Natrium reactor cooled with melted salt. Its peculiarity lies in thermal storage: liquid sodium accumulates excess heat, so that the heart can run at constant speed while the electricity production follows demand. Existing reactors increase by about 5% per minute, small modular reactors by about 10%; TerraPower's device aims to free itself from this constraint without installing priceless batteries.
Meta committed in January to buy eight Natrium plants. A first unit is under construction in Wyoming, and the company plans to announce this year its first project specifically supported by a data centre, which would start in 2027.
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