By Laila Kearney and Sumit Saha
NEW YORK, June 1 (Reuters) – Duke Energy, one of the largest U.S. electric utilities, said on Monday it has talked to hyperscalers about the prospect of building new nuclear power if the technology companies take on some of the financial risk of building the reactors.
Duke, which is based in North Carolina and serves a large swath of the broader southeast U.S., has seen massive demand from companies building energy-intensive data centers that are driving electricity consumption across the country to record highs.
The power company has discussed the prospect of adding more nuclear energy to its fleet, which already includes the largest number of nuclear power plants of any regulated utility in the country, to serve that growing demand, Duke CEO Harry Sideris said during a Reuters NEXT Newsmaker interview.
The construction of nuclear power plants is notorious for costing more and taking longer than initially planned, and U.S. electric utilities have been hesitant to take on the risk of new builds alone.
(Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York; Editing by Nia Williams)
