The company Blockfusion Ventures announced this week a partnership with the firm NANO Nuclear Energy, Inc. that involves exploring the possibility of using a nuclear micro-reactor to power its crypto-mining facility on Frontier Avenue.
In a joint release, the companies announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at exploring the possibility of bringing Nano Nuclear Energy's "advanced microreactor technologies" to the site. In addition, the release indicates that the companies intend to use the site to "evaluate the compatibility between its micro reactors' electric output and the AI data center's energy requirements."
"We are thrilled to be collaborating with NANO Nuclear on this exciting endeavor," said Alex Martini, CEO of Blockfusion. "The groundbreaking microreactor technology NANO Nuclear is developing has the potential to revolutionize the way data centers are powered, ensuring a sustainable future while meeting the very large and ever-growing energy demands of data center and artificial intelligence sectors."
According to the companies, the MOU will allow NANO Nuclear to lead a "technical assessment" of "advanced power supply systems for Blockfusion's data center. The process would, according to the release, involve exploring the "potential" integration of advanced microreactor technologies as well as "evaluating compatibility between its microreactors' electric output and the artificial intelligence (AI) datacenter's energy requirements." The release indicates that NANO Nuclear will also assist Blockfusion in assessing the potential for other clean energy source alternatives at the site, including wind and solar.
"Additionally, considerations will be made in relation to environmental and regulatory constraints, as well as economic feasibility, alongside risk assessments. The MOU is non-binding and non-exclusive, but establishes a collaboration framework for a period of twenty-three months which could lead to the execution of definitive agreements in the future," the release notes.
NANO Nuclear Energy, the first microreactor to be publicly listed on the NASDAQ, was founded by Jay Jiang Yu, who serves as the company's executive chairman. An April 2022 release announcing his role with the company describes NANO Nuclear Energy as looking to "disrupt" the Small Modular Reactors "space," principally in "underdeveloped nuclear areas" and interested in advancing "micro SMRs toward development and deployment in residential, commercial, and industrial settings."
The company employs a nuclear physicist, James Walker, as its CEO and head of reactor development.
Small Modular Reactors, or SMRs, are advanced nuclear reactors providing power capacity of up to 300 megawatts per unit, or roughly one-third of the generating capacity of traditional nuclear power reactors.
"We have long considered datacenters focused on AI, quantum computing and crypto mining as an ideal potential customer for our micro nuclear reactors in development, and this MOU provides an excellent opportunity to explore the real-world demands our microreactors can meet for this important sector," Yu said.
Blockfusion spent $25 million to convert a decommissioned coal power plant on Frontier Avenue into a cryptocurrency mining operation. The site became a source of concern for some neighbors who complained about the noise created during the process of Bitcoin mining. City officials later adopted a series of zoning code amendments that imposed strict new regulations on the operation of so-called "high-energy use industries."
Blockfusion's Frontier Avenue operation shut down in November 2022 after the city notified the company that it was in violation of high-energy use industry amendments, prompting the company to immediately file an application for an operating permit that included changes to the operation in an effort to comply with the new regulations.
Last year, the city's planning board recommended that the city council approve an operating permit for Northeast Data, doing business as BlockFusion. The council considered the request in June but failed to formally vote on it.
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