Nuclear & SMR Offtake for Data Centers

Glossary

Capacity factor: The ratio of the energy a generator actually produces to the maximum it could produce if it ran flat out continuously. Hyperscale data centers run above 90 percent, and nuclear plants deliver similarly high capacity factors, which is why the two are a natural fit.
Combined license (COL): An NRC authorization that merges the older two-step construction permit and operating license into a single proceeding, so a developer can gain approval to both build and operate a plant before construction begins, reducing the regulatory risk that hangs over the build.
Firm (baseload) power: Generation you can rely on being available whenever it is needed, independent of weather, as opposed to variable resources like solar and wind. Nuclear's near-constant availability gives it a capacity credit close to its nameplate rating.
HALEU (high-assay low-enriched uranium): A more highly enriched uranium fuel required by many advanced and small modular reactor designs. Its supply base is currently thin and largely non-domestic, making the fuel supply chain a potential bottleneck that can delay deployment independently of a design's licensing progress.
Levelized cost of energy (LCOE): A measure that spreads a plant's total lifetime cost, dominated for nuclear by upfront capital, across all the energy it will ever produce. For nuclear the result is highly sensitive to the interest rate on borrowed money and to whether the project finishes on schedule.
Power purchase agreement (PPA): A long-term contract in which a buyer agrees to purchase a plant's electricity output at an agreed price, often for fifteen to twenty years. A PPA with a creditworthy hyperscaler provides the predictable revenue that makes capital-intensive nuclear projects financeable.
Reactor restart: Returning a shut-down but not-yet-dismantled reactor to service through refurbishment and regulatory requalification. It is the fastest nuclear path to firm power because it reuses an existing license, cooling source, and switchyard, but the supply of restartable units is finite.
Small modular reactor (SMR): A nuclear reactor, typically a few hundred megawatts or smaller, designed to be built as standardized modules in a factory and assembled on site, with the goal of lowering cost and schedule risk through volume manufacturing rather than bespoke megaproject construction.