CALIFORNIA – Google has signed a deal to use small nuclear reactors to generate the vast amounts of energy needed to power its artificial intelligence (AI) data centres. The company says the agreement with Kairos Power will see it start using the first reactor this decade and bring more online by 2035.
The companies did not give any details about how much the deal is worth or where the plants will be built. Technology firms are increasingly turning to nuclear sources of energy to supply the electricity used by the huge data centres that drive AI. “The grid needs new electricity sources to support AI technologies,” said Michael Terrell, senior director for energy and climate at Google.
“This agreement helps accelerate a new technology to meet energy needs cleanly and reliably, and unlock the full potential of AI for everyone.” The deal with Google “is important to accelerate the commercialisation of advanced nuclear energy by demonstrating the technical and market viability of a solution critical to decarbonising power grids,” said Kairos executive Jeff Olson. The plans still have to be approved by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission as well as local agencies before they are allowed to proceed. Last year, US regulators gave California-based Kairos Power the first permit in 50 years to build a new type of nuclear reactor. In July, the company started construction of a demonstration reactor in Tennessee.
The startup specialises in the development of smaller reactors that use molten fluoride salt as a coolant instead of water, which is used by traditional nuclear plants. Nuclear power, which is virtually carbon free and provides electricity 24 hours a day, has become increasingly attractive to the tech industry as it attempts to cut emissions even as it uses more energy.
Global energy consumption by data centres is expected to more than double by the end of the decade, according to Wall Street banking giant Goldman Sachs. John Moore, Industry Editor for the TechTarget website told the BBC that AI data centres need large amounts of electricity to both power them and keep equipment cool. (BBC)…[+]

Photo: People walk by a Google sign. (Reuters)

KENTUCKY – A former police officer in the US state of Kentucky is to go on trial for a third time over the death of Breonna Taylor, a black woman shot dead in her own home in 2020 during a botched raid.
Brett Hankison, 47, was part of a group of officers in the city of Louisville who broke into Taylor’s apartment on 13 March that year. Some 32 shots were fired at Taylor and her boyfriend, who survived the encounter. Taylor’s death sparked racial injustice rallies across the US.
Mr Hankison has twice before avoided a conviction for allegedly violating Taylor’s civil rights. Jury selection in his new trial will start on Tuesday.
While Taylor, a 26-year-old nursing student, and her boyfriend Kenneth Walker, slept at her apartment in the early morning hours, officers wearing plain clothes executed a “no-knock” search warrant.
Authorities believed Taylor’s ex-boyfriend was using her home to hide narcotics.
Walker fired a single shot when officers knocked down the door because he said they did not announce themselves as police, and he thought they were intruders.
Another officer fired the shot that killed Taylor, but prosecutors said his use of deadly force was justified because Mr Walker had opened fire first, hitting a colleague of Mr Hankison.
During the altercation, Mr Hankison fired 10 rounds through Taylor’s window and sliding glass door. The bullets did not hit anyone, but entered the neighbouring property.
A subsequent police report contained errors, including listing Taylor’s injuries as “none” and saying no force was used to enter, when a battering ram had been used.
Taylor’s name was widely circulated during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality.
Mr Hankison was sacked from Louisville Metro Police Department in June 2020.
He has not been convicted of any crimes. His previous federal case last year ended in a mistrial when the jury told the judge it could not reach a unanimous verdict.
The nine-day case revolved around whether the use of force by Mr Hankison had violated the rights of Taylor, Mr Walker and Taylor’s neighbours.
Mr Hankison admitted to the court that he could not see a target but believed a shootout was taking place, and acted to save his and his fellow officers’ lives. He was previously tried by a Kentucky state jury in March 2022, and acquitted on three counts of felony wanton endangerment. (BBC)…[+]

Photo: A remembrance for Breonna Taylor. (Reuters)

INDIA — India said Monday it was withdrawing its envoy to Canada, because Ottawa was investigating him and other diplomats as “persons of interest”, after the killing last year of a Sikh separatist leader. The 2023 murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar crashed diplomatic relations with India after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence to the crime.

The withdrawal of India’s ambassador is a major escalation in the fraught ties between the nations. “We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security,” New Delhi’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials.”

New Delhi had earlier said in a statement it had “received a diplomatic communication from Canada suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are persons of interest” in the ongoing investigation. It said their envoy, Sanjay Kumar Verma, a former ambassador to Japan and Sudan, was a respected career diplomat and that accusations against him were “ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt”.

Nijjar — who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015 — had advocated for a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan, carved out of India. He had been wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder. Four Indian nationals have been arrested in connection with Nijjar’s murder, which took place in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver in June 2023. (jamaicaobserver)

Photo: Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa…[+]