• The first nuclear mining center to hit the United States has successfully been completed in Pennsylvania. 
• The center will carry out many Bitcoin activities and cloud computing activities once operations begin. 

A nuclear-powered data center, built in Susquehanna, in the northeastern region of Pennsylvania, has just successfully completed. The center’s completion is good news for the Bitcoin mining industry, as it is expected to house Bitcoin mining-related activities once operations kick-off. Cloud computing activities will also be carried out at the center.

The center is built next to the Susquehanna power plant. The 300,000-square-foot, 48-megawatt center was constructed by Cumulus Data, a subsidiary of Talen Energy. Talen Energy is an independent power producer founded in 2015, headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and headed by Alex Hernandez.

Talen has also been affiliated with the Cryptocurrency mining company TeraWulf. In 2021, Talen and TeraWulf announced a zero-carbon mining joint enterprise. The enterprise named Nautilus Cryptomine was made to develop as much as 300 megawatts of zero-carbon Bitcoin mining capacity.

Talen is currently valued at $4.3 billion and has put its weight behind the center, which already has some fiber routes in service.

Alex Hernandez, who also heads Cumulus Data, spoke about the data center and its underlying plans to tackle some of the existing limitations in crypto mining.

Hernandez says that the center will open up to the market this year, with part of its mission including the reduction of carbon emissions and provision of sustainable electricity for its customer base. Hernandez stated;

Our flagship Cumulus Susquehanna data centre campus is positioned to welcome its first tenant and commenced commercial operations this year. We look forward to advancing our mission to solve the energy ‘trilemma’ which we define as the rapidly increasing consumer demand for zero-carbon, low-cost, and reliable electricity by data center customers.

Bitcoin mining difficulty jumps to new ATH, hashrate simultaneously builds momentum

Meanwhile, Bitcoin mining has been thriving since the new year began. The Bitcoin mining network recently broke bearish barriers with a spike in network difficulty.

According to data from Coinwarz, Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 10 percent on the 15th of January, leading to a new hash rate all-time high (37.59 trillion hashes). The last time the Bitcoin mining difficulty surged this much was in November of 2022.

The increase in mining difficulty is healthy for the Bitcoin mining network and tightens network security.

Similarly, Bitcoin’s hash rate, a key security metric showing Bitcoin’s computational power, has also been building momentum since 2020.