cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20016368
Modern AI data centers consume enormous amounts of power, and it looks like they will get even more power-hungry in the coming years as companies like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI strive towards artificial general intelligence (AGI). Oracle has already outlined plans to use nuclear power plants for its 1-gigawatt datacenters. It looks like Microsoft plans to do the same as it just inked a deal to restart a nuclear power plant to feed its data centers, reports Bloomberg.
For anyone that thinks Microsoft is going to be in full control of the daily operations of this plant, you are sorely mistaken. The NRC has extremely strict regulations for all power plants, and I can promise you that Three Mile Island will be run to the same standards as any other nuclear power plant in the United States. TMI had design flaws that were heavily studied after the incident, and the findings from those investigations have influenced new legislation to prevent such accidents from happening again. The plant will be entirely overhauled to meet modern safety standards before coming back online, you can’t just chuck some uranium back into the core and flip a switch to turn it back on.
Jesus Christ.
Look, I’m in favor of nuclear power. We have new designs that are much, much safer than the ones that failed back in the 80’s. Even so, we can get a Fukushima event; not world-ending but still pretty terrible.
The thing is, no matter how safe the design, Microsoft and other companies dialed in on greed–especially companies for whom power generation is not their core competency–can be trusted to cut corners until those safe designs become dangerous again.
And Three Mile Island WAS NOT A SAFE DESIGN.
What the fuck are we doing?
So no one reads the articles? The reactor in question was only shut down in 2019 due to economic reasons. Unit 1 had been running fine this entire time, from 1974 to 2019. It will now be run by the energy company that’s been safely running it, it will just devote all generated power to Microsoft.
I did get a chuckle out of this though:
The facility will need to be fully restaffed
Yeah, it’s been 45 years, I don’t think those folks were waiting around for the place to reopen.
Microsoft is not going to be running the reactor. You didn’t read the article.
Constellation Energy will invest $1.6 billion to restart its Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
Why the fuck is anyone trusting Microsoft with a fucking reactor? I wouldn’t trust them with a fucking cock ring.
You didn’t read the article. Microsoft is not going to be running the reactor.
What do you mean? What could go wrong? It’s only 3-mile Island. I’m sure the patches they apply to the control rod computers will be double checked extra closely. Don’t worry!
PS - I live elsewhere
Fuck me, how many times is this going to be posted?
Not enough for people to actually read the fucking article but plenty to fear monger because of the name.
Until people stop mindlessly clicking on bait about Microsoft, nuclear power, and AI being bad.
Ok, we’ve jumped the shark on the apocalypse, and I fucking love it. This shit is going sideways so hard and so fast that I’m really just waiting around to see how fucked up it can get. I’ll be real, I’ve already made my peace that the planet is going to be mostly human-free in the next century, so I may as well enjoy the fireworks. Fire up the reactor, boys! We’ve got SEO to write!
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