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Microsoft is plunging ahead on nuclear energy
Posted on 9/25/23 at 10:36 am
Posted on 9/25/23 at 10:36 am
quote:
They want a fleet of reactors powering new data centers. And now they're hiring people from the traditional nuclear industry to get it done.
Why?
Lack of stable long-term power, whether clean or dirty, is constraining Microsoft's growth. They need to build big data centers that consume electricity all the time and the old assumption that somebody else's reliable plants will always be around to firm up your wind and solar is falling apart.
It certainly helps that founder Bill Gates was one of the earliest big business converts to nuclear energy, investing his own money to develop new reactors.
But Microsoft, like many companies, was held back by what we might consider "Enron-ism" infecting its energy thinking: renewable energy credits plus markets plus cute little lies to the public about how electricity works. Greenwashed fossil/hydro/nuclear with the ESG stamp of approval.
The problem? Eventually you run out of other people's cheap firm power.
So Microsoft has recently become a leader in openly asserting that nuclear energy counts as clean energy, as opposed to the ongoing cowardice we see from the other big tech companies who lie to the public about being "100% renewable powered."
Sure, the lawyers said it was okay to lie, but the lie doesn't give you a permanent supply of cheap reliable energy. That comes from nuclear.
A world is coming where only the tech companies willing to become nuclear power developers may get to keep expanding their cloud businesses, and only countries open to new reactors get to host this expansion.
A world where tech companies with 50% margins become the only survival hope for traditional industrial concerns with 5% margins who need someone else to bootstrap a proper electricity supply.
Where diesel backup generators are replaced with microreactors reliable enough to be trusted to keep a cluster of facilities secure in the case of public grid failure.
The race is on.
LINK
Nuclear has always been the best option yet climate change advocates want it gone too. Now that MS is moving forward on it, and Bill is heavily invested in it, how soon will the tune toward nuclear change?
13
Posted on 9/25/23 at 10:39 am to stout
quote:well, the communists, (formerly progressives) have already done a 180 on free speech and their warmongering is quite noteworthy; why not come full circle on nuclear power
how soon will the tune toward nuclear change?
not a shred of integrity or decency in the entirety of these communists here in the USA
Posted on 9/25/23 at 10:42 am to JJJimmyJimJames
Yup, the flow of people’s personal data to big brother outweighs any so called “climate” concerns
Posted on 9/25/23 at 10:43 am to stout
Can’t wait until the white hats get all these big tech fricks.
This post was edited on 9/25/23 at 10:44 am
Posted on 9/25/23 at 10:44 am to stout
I don't care why they are turning back, it's a net good. There are reactor designs that are incapable of melting down due to the physics of their design, there are reactors that can run off waste from light water reactors or even unrefined uranium. There are designs that don't require almost any water and can go in almost anywhere. We have like 700 years worth of power just sitting in nuclear waste, and quality off life is directly tied to availability of energy. I hope these morons grow up and abandon the childish insistence on power generation methods that are not reliable
Posted on 9/25/23 at 10:51 am to stout
Nuclear power is far and away the most efficient and cleanest energy there is. It’s insane to me we as a society let an event that happened 40 years ago still scare us from widespread implementation of it
Posted on 9/25/23 at 11:01 am to stout
This is a positive development.
Posted on 9/25/23 at 11:03 am to stout
As long as the first nuke reactor is built within the potential radiation zone of Gates' personal residence, I'm good with it.
Posted on 9/25/23 at 11:13 am to stout
quote:
Lack of stable long-term power, whether clean or dirty
A self-inflicted wound from which the United States may never fully recover.
"Clean" energy is largely a myth. "Cleaner" is probably more accurate, but "cleaner" than what? Nuclear is cleaner than dino power for the air, but you have other nastiness to deal with.
The "renewables" (
) all require dino inputs to get started, dino products (or synthetic alternatives) to maintain, dino products (and/or nuclear) as backup power because all the "renewables" have significant reliability/ecological issues: Wind - wind doesn't always blow. Turbines freeze in the winter. Turbines are unsightly and bad for birds and other wildlife.
Solar - the obvious one is nighttime - so even if you are ever able to produce enough power for the grid, you have to store the power for night, storm, etc. Solar, on an industrial scale, is also very, very land intensive. Land gets taken out of other uses on a massive scale. Not good for wildlife for sure.
Geothermal - the most reasonably reliable of the bunch and the closest to industrial capacity of all the "renewables". Generally massive infrastructure investments, fairly significant maintenance requirements, and so forth. Alters waterways, interferes with natural development (obviously, this is also true of flood control and at least geothermal has the virtue of returning power and saving other energy sources.)
So, if the Green Zealots don't want coal, oil or gas power, then they will have to accept a much broader nuclear power backbone which has the potential to make up for all the shortcomings of "renewables", but the with the risk/expense of dealing with contamination from nuclear power (and this is one area that has improved and has the potential to significantly improve with advances in technology).
Posted on 9/25/23 at 11:16 am to stout
Big tech lies finally getting their comeuppance. They've created a world full of radical zealots thirsty for the blood of "heretics" (anyone who isn't a full-on climate change zealot).
Posted on 9/25/23 at 11:18 am to Ace Midnight
quote:
So, if the Green Zealots don't want coal, oil or gas power, then they will have to accept a much broader nuclear power backbone which has the potential to make up for all the shortcomings of "renewables", but the with the risk/expense of dealing with contamination from nuclear power (and this is one area that has improved and has the potential to significantly improve with advances in technology).
Microsoft nuclear won't be operational for decades and it'll cost a shite ton.
Posted on 9/25/23 at 11:23 am to stout
Centrus is using old Russian nuclear warheads in this endeavor from what I gathered from reading about Centrus just last night. I believe Centrus absorbed, or was formerly US Enrichment (USEC), a company which Robert Mueller reportedly has ties to.
"At the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio, Centrus has constructed the first U.S. HALEU production facility licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and expects to begin production of HALEU by the end of 2023 as part of the company's contract with the DOE. With sufficient funding and offtake commitments, Centrus could expand the facility to meet the full range of commercial and national security requirements for enriched uranium, including the production of Low-Enriched Uranium as well as HALEU."
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oklo-and-centrus-energy-sign-memorandum-of-understanding-for-fuel-components-and-power-procurement-to-support-the-deployment-of-advanced-fission-technologies-in-southern-ohio-301911056.html
"At the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio, Centrus has constructed the first U.S. HALEU production facility licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and expects to begin production of HALEU by the end of 2023 as part of the company's contract with the DOE. With sufficient funding and offtake commitments, Centrus could expand the facility to meet the full range of commercial and national security requirements for enriched uranium, including the production of Low-Enriched Uranium as well as HALEU."
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oklo-and-centrus-energy-sign-memorandum-of-understanding-for-fuel-components-and-power-procurement-to-support-the-deployment-of-advanced-fission-technologies-in-southern-ohio-301911056.html
Posted on 9/25/23 at 11:25 am to stout
quote:
So Microsoft has recently become a leader in openly asserting that nuclear energy counts as clean energy, as opposed to the ongoing cowardice we see from the other big tech companies who lie to the public about being "100% renewable powered."
frick Bill Gates… but atleast they’re getting this right. Its always been the answer until fusion is feasible a few decades down the road.
Posted on 9/25/23 at 11:31 am to Padme
quote:
Yup, the flow of people’s personal data to big brother outweighs any so called “climate” concerns
A true believer in climate change should encourage nuclear
Posted on 9/25/23 at 11:33 am to Padme
quote:or, as in this case, that Jane Fonda GLOW...
the flow of people’s personal data to big brother outweighs any so called “climate” concerns
not a shred of integrity or decency in these evil filth
Posted on 9/25/23 at 11:38 am to narddogg81
quote:
There are reactor designs that are incapable of melting down due to the physics of their design, there are reactors that can run off waste from light water reactors or even unrefined uranium. There are designs that don't require almost any water and can go in almost anywhere. We have like 700 years worth of power just sitting in nuclear waste, and quality of life is directly tied to availability of energy. I hope these morons grow up and abandon the childish insistence on power generation methods that are not reliable
shhhhhhhh -
You are laying out things that SOLVE a problem
DEMOCRATS never want to SOLVE problems - problems are to be EXPLOITED not solved!!
Democrats CREATE problems - they don't 'solve' them - without "problems" to blame conservatives with they got NOTHING!!!!!
Posted on 9/25/23 at 11:43 am to Henry Jones Jr
quote:
Nuclear power is far and away the most efficient and cleanest energy there is.
there is no other option at the time - or within what we understand as possibility.
And - until the "climate change" asshats start opening and closing their argument with NUCLEAR as the solution, you can tell they are only LYING - just like they do about every other 'problem' they attack - they don't want to solve any problem - they thrive on having a 'problem' to blame on conservative.
Wind and solar are niche application - use them for specific circumstances - but trying to use that as a 'solution' is the definition of idiocy - as long as NUCLEAR is not being fully tapped.
Posted on 9/25/23 at 11:46 am to Ace Midnight
well stated
Posted on 9/25/23 at 11:48 am to stout
Thought Nuclear Energy was Racsisms?
Posted on 9/25/23 at 11:53 am to stout
Small modular pebble bed reactors would work if they put a ceramic coating on the outside of the graphite balls.
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