By Josh Niland
Publication Date: 2026-04-21 16:55:00
Canadian engineering firm AtkinsRéalis has announced a partnership with tech company Nvidia that will deliver nuclear-powered data centre designs.
Through the collaboration, the firms said they will develop energy sources that can power the development of hyperscale centres that may cause strain to traditional power grids.
“Integrating nuclear power on site changes the scale and layout of an AI campus compared with a conventional data‑centre build, but it also enables more resilient, efficient and sustainable design,” AtkinsRéalis Nuclear head of digital Sam Stephens told Global Construction Review.
Designs will likely range in capacity from 740MWe (0.74 GW) to 1000MWe (1 GW), roughly comparable to the output of a small nuclear reactor.
The centres will use Nvidia‘s proprietary computing technologies for the streamlining of the planning process and integration into existing systems.
Large-scale factories
“To scale nuclear power quickly enough, we will need new ways of working, and digitisation promises to provide that breakthrough,” said Stephens, adding that beyond powering hyperscale AI centres, the move could also improve local grids.
“A nuclear power plant would be connected to the grid in order to provide essential services and support to local communities and infrastructure, not just an AI factory. So, there are opportunities to share electric infrastructure with the data centre,” he…
