A nuclear tech startup called Ampera says it has built a small nuclear reactor using 3D printing, and it wants to use machines like it to power the data centers behind artificial intelligence.
According to Tom's Hardware, Ampera unveiled what it describes as a small modular reactor manufactured with 3D-printing techniques. The company bills the design as "the world's first subcritical, solid-state, factory-built thorium nuclear reactor."
Each of those terms points to a specific design choice. "Small modular" means the reactor is compact and meant to be produced as standardized units rather than built one-off on-site. "Factory-built" reflects the ambition to manufacture them on an assembly line instead of pouring each reactor as a custom construction project. And the fuel is thorium, an alternative to the uranium used in most conventional reactors.
Ampera says it expects to be the first company to mass-produce these power sources, aimed at data centers and other applications, per Tom's Hardware.
The source material does not include performance figures, pricing, a timeline, regulatory approvals, or independent verification of the company's claims, so those remain open questions.
Why it matters: AI's rapid growth is straining electricity supplies, and reactors that could be churned out in a factory and dropped in next to a data center would be a dramatic shift in how the industry gets its power — if the technology proves out.