The AI industry is desperate for data centre power anywhere it can get it. They can’t get gas turbines without years of delay. Even the repurposed jet engine gas turbines they were really hoping wo…
  • BlueMonday1984@awful.systemsEnglish
    9·
    1 day ago

    If the AI bros get these things built before the bubble pops, we should expect bad designs, not allowing for local conditions, setting up the reactor operators for ridiculous errors, and lots of nuclear accidents. Hopefully not very big ones. Cross fingers!

    If and when those accidents start happening, its going to set back adoption of nuclear power by years, if not decades - especially if there’s an incompetent response to those accidents (which, considering Starmer and Trump are in charge, is worryingly likely)

    One of the other important things about the nuclear regulation process is that it makes sure the local people are involved. You can’t skip that step either. If you just run roughshod over the locals for the sake of AI, you’ve already got people in the streets protesting AI.

    The government will almost certainly try to just bypass the activists. But remember: anti-nuclear activists have decades of experience at this. So I’m sure it’ll go great all round.

    Anti-nuclear activists are going to have a field day with this, aren’t they?

    • fullsquare@awful.systemsEnglish
      5·
      23 hours ago

      have you seen how much time it takes to built single NPP? openai will be a smoking crater well before site for the first plant will get selected. then you have a backlog for turbines and reactors

      • David Gerard@awful.systemsOPMEnglish
        5·
        5 hours ago

        That’s a great question! If it’s for an AI power station, it turns out that 3.6 roentgen is a nutritional requirement.

        Is there anything else I can help you with?

        • Health benefits of radioactive glue on pizza
        • Why South Memphis needs a nuclear reactor built in 6 months
        • Why you need an anime waifu who glows in the dark
      • rook@awful.systemsEnglish
        5·
        23 hours ago

        Given the state of renewables and energy storage, this feels a lot like the final opportunity for nuclear power in its current state to actually do anything at all, and the “move fast and break things” crowd have no idea about building physical things more complex than a datacentre which honestly, isn’t that challenging in comparison.

        openai will be a smoking crater well before site for the first plant will get selected

        Other things that might not last that long include the government of the country in which you’re trying to build massive piece of infrastructure that represents a significant ongoing maintenance burden and risk.

        • fullsquare@awful.systemsEnglish
          3·
          11 hours ago

          renewable generation, i’m with you, but i’m not sold on storage. i’m not even sure if there’s enough lithium for grid batteries to seriously matter, so it might need to use something else. the boring, working option (geographically limited) is of course pumped storage hydro, but other than that, i think that the right way to do things is to use energy when it’s made, not when it’s needed. in particular, water heaters have tiny duty cycle and hot water just sits there, which means you could, in principle, make it so that water heaters soak up all, or at least as much as practical, of excess power, wherever it is available

          some countries do fund nuclear power as a kind of strategic energy independence hedge* no matter costs, most prominently france and russia, and to some degree india and a couple of others

          *also for military use

          • swlabr@awful.systemsEnglish
            4·
            5 hours ago

            i hear sodium batteries are emerging as an alternative to lithium, but note that I also don’t know shit about this domain

    • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.worldEnglish
      23·
      22 hours ago

      This could set back nuclear a lot actually. Get ready for anti-nuclear activists using this in the near future as an excuse to push coal and oil as “safer” alternatives.

      • Charlie Stross@wandering.shop
        5·
        21 hours ago

        @ZILtoid1991 Spoiler: it won’t happen, it’s basically more marketing bullshit from the folks trying to make bank off the AI bubble.

        Next they’re going to tout AI-powered diaper-changing robots for nursing homes and maternity wards. Equal likelihood of success, of course.