Environmental regulators reportedly overturn Mark Zuckerberg’s decision nuclear power plant partnership intended to help power Meta’s DC current artificial intelligence projects. Details remain scant, but the main reason for suspending projects reportedly boils down to one problem:rare bees.

The tech company’s setback, first reported on Nov. 4 by Financial Timescame after surveyors discovered the currently unspecified pollinators while surveying land earmarked for a new AI Data Center. The selected area provided easy access to the nearby, unspecified nuclear power plant. Zuckerberg, however, confirmed the project’s cancellation during an all-level Meta meeting last week, according to FT. The company’s CEO added that before the termination, Meta was on track to become the first company to use nuclear power for AI thanks to the largest factory currently available for a data center. (Meta did not respond to requests for comment at the time of writing.)

(Related: Massive energy demand for AI brings Three Mile Island back from the dead.)

Meta and many other tech companies continue to face energy crises thanks to their recent investments in AI. Earlier this year, Microsoft has confirmed its greenhouse gas emissions have increased by around 29% since 2020 due to new data centers specifically “designed and optimized to support AI workloads.” Google also calculated its own pollution generation has increased by 48% since 2019, largely due to the energy needs of data centers.

“As we integrate more AI into our products, reducing emissions may prove difficult.” Google researchers wrote in a July sustainability report.

Critics, meanwhile, continue to voice concerns about it. controversial AI projects‘ staggering energy needs. For example, it is estimated that a single AI-integrated search query requires up to 10 times more energy than a standard Google search, the equivalent of keep a light bulb on for 20 minutes. In response, technology companies have announced several projects focused on nuclear power in recent months. Microsoft is currently aiming to bring the infamous Three Mile Island factory back online for its AI needs, while Amazon invests hundreds of millions of dollars in a partnership with the Pennsylvania Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant. Google is currently investing in the development of “mini” modular nuclear reactors for its own energy needs.

THE United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission lists 94 operational commercial reactors at 55 nuclear power plants in 28 states that collectively provide about one-fifth of the nation’s energy. Dozens of bee species found in the United States are currently considered at risk or endangeredtherefore it is difficult to determine which species caused the failure of Meta’s project and where it happened.

Although the specific nuclear power plant and bee remain a mystery, assistant professor of entomology at Purdue University Brock Harpur believes that the current situation of bee species in the United States suggests some possibilities.

“If it’s in California, there are now several protected bumblebees,” Harpur said. Popular science.

California’s only operational nuclear facility is currently Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County. Given that the process of approving and building any new nuclear power plant takes years, it’s possible that Meta wanted to court Diablo Canyon’s owners at PG&E if the company hoped to keep up with the competition in AI. Diablo Canyon representatives did not respond to Popular science at the time of writing. With the majority of U.S. nuclear power plants located in the Midwest and East Coast, Harpur speculated that it was also possible that the rare pollinator in question was the rusty-patched bumblebee, the rusty-patched bumblebee. first bee added to the US Fish and Wildlife Service list of threatened species in 2017.