AI data centers may soon be powered by retired US Navy nuclear reactors from aircraft carriers and submarines

Comments

• AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I’m just a former Navy Nuke, but I see a major issue with this. Namely, by the time we retire ship-board nuclear reactors, they have been absorbing neutrons and radiation for 30 years, so the steel is weak enough that you could put a ball-peen hammer through it.

  source

  • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    The wiki on radiation embrittlement is pretty good reading for any mechanical engineers out there: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_embrittlement

    source
• Zer0_F0x@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  So I got a job at this company back in the day that did phone and email customer service for other companies.

  I was one of the last people they ever hired. Me and 7 other people were shown to our cubicles that had brand new Dell sff computers and peripherals in their boxes.

  We were told the IT guys were off or on sick leave and I offered to try and set the machines up at least to save time. With the help of the others we plugged everything in and then kinda sat there all day doing nothing.

  Next day we all show up for work and we see people carrying boxes out of the building. Turns out the owner was neck deep in debt and just dissappeared, people were told they shouldn’t be expecting any more paychecks or bother suing.

  Basically the manager told everyone to just sort of take whatever they want home and everyone just took their work PC home. Me and 7 other people basically got a free PC for half a day’s work, others got shafted though…

  All I’m trying to say here is maybe DON’T SELL NUCLEAR AIRCRAFT CARRIER REACTORS to private companies that are 100% going to go tits up soon when yet another tech bubble bursts and those reactors end up being sold on AliExpress?

  source

  • Eh_I@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    No problem, got my eyes on a Trident missile.

    source

    • eleitl@lemmy.zip ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Make sure to get the PAL code for the nuke, too.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
• rafoix@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  They should be forced to make their own clean power plants. No clean coal, no natural gas. Only renewable since it is a guarantee that they will leave 100% of the cost of the nuclear disposal to the taxpayers.

  source

  • deforestgump@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    You underestimate the fact that all of these tech CEOs are in a death cult.

    source
  • punksnotdead@slrpnk.net ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Nuclear energy is a con
    It’s just a cover for making their bombs
    And it sends people to an early grave
    So we want the power of the wind and the waves

    Harness the wind
    Harness the waves
    We don’t need this filthy nuclear waste
    Solar power - yet another alternative
    Think of the boundless energy the sun has to give
    Then there’s hydro-electricity with turbines and dams
    And we can cut our consumption with conservation programmes

    Harness the wind
    The sun the waves
    We don’t need this filthy nuclear waste
    The civil atomic energy programmes is nothing but an elaborate cover-up for the real use of nuclear power namely the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons
    We call for an end to the nuclear power programmes and properly funded research into renewable sources of energy

    Harness the wind
    The sun the waves
    We don’t need this filthy nuclear waste

    youtu.be/DjF6g51GHng

    source
  • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    they will leave 100% of the cost of the nuclear disposal to the taxpayers.

    As opposed to the military handling disposal of the reactor materials… which is paid by… the taxpayers.

    You didn’t think this comment through every much, or at all really, did you?

    source

    • rafoix@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I trust the military doing it to spec a million times more than any company executives. It’ll probably be left to pollute the area they hide it for decades before taxpayers have to pay for it.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • punksnotdead@slrpnk.net ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I think this song epitomises what rafoix replied with

      Safety rules - corners cut
      Just to keep the profits up
      Money saved - profits rise
      But consequence is someone dies

      Victim of a chemical spillage

      Safety regulations breached
      Critical concentrations reached
      Money is saved but a live is lost
      Loved ones left to count the cost

      Tanker crashing the village
      Death could from the spillage
      No escape from the fumes
      Peoples’ homes become their tombs

      In the face of corporate greed
      Ecodefence is what we need
      Read and act upon this text
      Or you become the next victim of a chemical spillage

      youtu.be/Q3sHdN4f_TI

      source
    • BussyCat@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      The DOE doing it is already financially accounted for and there is a professional staff that are trained on how to do it

      source
• eleitl@lemmy.zip ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  What could possibly go wrong?

  source
• potatopotato@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Ah yes, let’s give rich people weapons grade uranium (what these compact reactors run on)

  source

  • BussyCat@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Weapons grade uranium is so expensive and energy intensive to make that I can’t imagine they would ever pay for it and the fuel is at end of life so would need refueling soon.

    The navy likely puts a safety margin on the fuel so there is probably some life left in the fuel but I would be very surprised if it lasted more than a year or two which is where I am confused on how this would work

    source
  • Transform2942@lemmy.ml ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Just FYI reactor grade uranium is generally enriched below 5% whereas weapons grade is enriched to ~85%

    source

    • potatopotato@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Aircraft carriers don’t use reactor grade, they use HEU for more power out of smaller more compact reactors and less frequent refueling. IIRC 93%+ is common.

      source
• p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  This is a much cheaper and faster way to get nuclear power.

  Is this “journalist” an industry plant?

  source
• Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Fallout is actually gonna happen before we get HL3

  source

  • P00ptart@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Definitely before we get fallout 5.

    source

    • invertedspear@lemmy.zip ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Has MS done anything with all the IPs they bought over the last 10v or so years? I haven’t seen anything new in an old IP that’s excited me in the gaming world.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
• Devworker@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Do the people that think this a good idea just not see how fast they are trying to prop up new AI datacenters?

  Corners are being cut everywhere to get these things built so quickly

  I honestly wouldn’t even trust them with to make their own power safely even with things like hydro, wind or geothermal

  But fucking nuclear of all things?

  They know it would take decades to build the actual nuclear power plants to run everything so they decid to instead try buying nuclear power generators that are already several decades old

  source
• disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Oh good. I was hoping we’d find a way for AI to consume more water.

  source

  • sem@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    What if we put the AI in the ocean

    source
  • Rambomst@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    It’s a Christmas miracle!

    source
• reddig33@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  And who will pay for the disposal and storage of the waste produced?

  source

  • ulterno@programming.dev ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Us of course. With the small ‘s’.

    source
• altphoto@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  And all the brave men and women of the various branches of the armed forces can just dance and juggle for the mighty king! Yey!

  source