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Microsoft inks deal to restart Three Mile Island nuclear reactor to fuel its voracious AI ambitions (www.tomshardware.com)

submitted 2 months ago by irreticent to c/technology

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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.

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[–] NeoNachtwaechter 7 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Have they solved the disposal questions?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago

We haven't solved the "disposal" question of using fossil fuels, and those turned out (or were known along) to cause much bigger problems.

[–] SlopppyEngineer 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Mostly, yes. Use breeder reactors to turn long term radioactive waste to sort term radioactive waste, store for short time and done. The downside: it's more expensive to move and process the stuff so nobody wants to do that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

How short is short-term?

[–] SlopppyEngineer 1 points 2 months ago

Hundred years. Big difference with the 100.000 years of the current waste.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

Like most things with environmental impact, we just let later generations deal with it. Somehow.

[–] peopleproblems 5 points 2 months ago

Relatively yes. There are disposal sites under construction that are in highly stable and environmentally safe locations. One good thing right now is that radioactive waste is temporarily easily stored. Transport of waste is an issue still, but far less of a problem than transporting oil and oil products.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

We have, but of course not to the satisfaction of anti-nuclear activists because solving it would be counter to their actual goals.

Nuclear waste is actually quite easy to deal with unless your purposes are best served by it being very difficult to deal with, in which case you make as much trouble as you can for it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Uh... Yeah. The reactor was in operation until 2019 when it stopped being profitable. Disposal was never a problem.