Blockchain technology company Bitdeer has acquired 40MW worth of liquid-cooled mining containers from Saiheat.

According to a recent announcement, the newly acquired containers will host Bitdeer’s own proprietary mining rigs, known as the Sealminer, which are expected to be deployed in April.

Bitdeer continues to expand its Bitcoin mining operations after acquiring a 99MW site in Fox Creek, Alberta, in February of this year in an all-cash transaction.

Bitdeer currently has 175,000 Bitcoin mining rigs up and running, amounting to a total hashrate of 24.2EHps, and a cache of 114 self-mined Bitcoins. The company has multiple mining sites in locations spread around the globe, including Ohio, Norway, Ethiopia, and Bhutan.

Saiheat’s focus on developing new power and cooling solutions has seen the company develop several novel solutions in recent years, including a thermal module that recycles the heat emitted by cryptocurrency mining rigs.

Saiheat last year announced a nuclear-powered Small Modular Reactor (SMR) dubbed HEATNUC. The SMR functions as a portable nuclear power plant, and is designed to be deployed at any crypto mining site.

Saiheat claims the nuclear-powered SMRs have no carbon footprint, and are “designed as a stable, high-capacity energy source. HEATNUC addresses the unique power needs of AI-driven infrastructure, providing a solution that traditional renewable and fossil-fuel-based energy sources cannot match.”

Many in the industry say nuclear energy could be the answer to the massive energy needs of the cryptocurrency industry, as well as the emergent artificial intelligence (AI) space which demands similarly huge computing power.

Earlier this year, the States of Texas and Utah, along with energy firm Last Energy, filed a lawsuit against the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The suit sought to break down legal barriers requiring that all nuclear reactors obtain construction and operating licenses, regardless of size.

The plaintiffs say the NRC is viewing the matter through an outdated lens, and that it has made the development of nuclear power plants almost impossible.

Data centers are seen as a comfortable fit with SMRs and other small-scale nuclear providers, given the digital industry’s need for large amounts of reliable baseload power. Numerous cloud providers, colocation firms, and wholesale providers of various stripes have announced deals with SMR providers in the last couple of years – though none are yet to actually come to market.

Blockchain firm Standard Power has previously announced plans to procure 24 small modular reactors from NuScale for two US data center sites. Another crypto firm, Blockfusion, has partnered with Nano Nuclear about deploying its container-sized plants at a mining site in New York.

Formerly known as Sai.Tech Global Corporation, Saiheat listed on the Nasdaq in 2022 through a merger with TradeUP Global Corporation.