No wonder #KochNetwork and the Saudis are investing so heavily in AI; it's a strategy to keep the globe addicted to fossil fuels.
https://qz.com/saudi-arabia-ai-public-investment-fun-1851350604
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2572046/saudi-arabia
https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-ai-groq-a16z-vision-2030-mbs-2024-9
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/25/conservatives-prepare-attack-on-bidens-ai-order-00137935
https://news.kochinc.com/news/2022/koch-invests-koch-backs-celestial-ai-s-work-to-acc
@Npars01 @noellemitchell Sorry, that does not track with what the hyperscalars are actually doing. Training runs need high continuous base load and even coal doesn’t do that well.
In reality, GenAI requirements are turbocharging the drive to carbon-free nuclear
@dragonsidedd @Npars01 @noellemitchell nuclear is slow to build. Gas is what’s being built, because their return on investment works on the scales of political cycles a industry can support.
And your argument for continuous loads is partially false. Training runs for the mega-models do last for months, but between runs there is great variability. And that’s where gas shines.
https://www.powermag.com/industry-exec-data-centers-will-drive-demand-for-natural-gas/
Overhead costs are enormous as well. Armed guards, safety crews, training etc...all add up.
Solar, wind and hydro offer turnkey profit in less than a year. Very attractive.
@Nimbius666 @gimulnautti @noellemitchell @Npars01 @dragonsidedd
"Too cheap to meter" nuclear is just a few years away... and has been for 60 years now.
@pieist @Nimbius666 @gimulnautti @noellemitchell @dragonsidedd
Nuclear waste?
https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-dirty-secret-its-leaking-nuclear-waste-dump/video-70237250
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czx6e2x0kdyo
Nuclear leaks?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7v6646l9emo
A nuclear version of Cancer Alley for where POC live?
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2024/08/19/radioactive-waste-atom-bomb-disposal-van-buren-township-wayne-county/74814545007/
Radioactive food supplies?
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/china-to-gradually-resume-imports-of-japan-seafood-after-consensus-on-nuclear-waste/3335525
Illegal dumping?
https://www.desmog.com/2024/09/19/from-uk-to-norway-drillers-legally-dump-tonnes-of-toxic-radioactive-waste-into-the-north-sea/
What to do with the Columbia River once radiation from Hanford gets there?
https://mynorthwest.com/3989510/mayfield-transporting-nuclear-waste-hanford-disaster-waiting-to-happen/
@Npars01 @pieist @Nimbius666 @gimulnautti @noellemitchell @dragonsidedd Nuclear waste isn’t as difficult a problem as people think. It can be buried deep enough that only a modern nation state could get near it, and if they do, by nearly astronomical odds, stumble on it, the tomb would be so conspicuous only fools wouldn’t check for all forms of safety.
The waste problem is entirely political.
@Npars01 @pieist @Nimbius666 @gimulnautti @noellemitchell @dragonsidedd That doesn’t solve the other issues. Our current nuclear energy strategy is an aging disaster. Solar, wind, and tidal are where we need to go right now. I don’t see the political will to rebuild our nuclear energy infrastructure coming any time soon.
@Extra_Special_Carbon @Npars01 @Nimbius666 @gimulnautti @noellemitchell @dragonsidedd
Solar power satellites are where it's at, baby. Can also be repurposed as a Starlink-zappers, for planetary demusking.
@pieist @Npars01 @Nimbius666 @gimulnautti @noellemitchell @dragonsidedd How do we get the power from there to here? We can’t beam 1.21 gigawatts from space to earth without some serious atmospheric side effects.
@Extra_Special_Carbon @Npars01 @Nimbius666 @gimulnautti @noellemitchell @dragonsidedd
Great Scott! (Whoa, this is heavy.)
There's a lot of debate on the topic, but purportedly at geostationary distances the maser beam spread would be sufficient enough that harms would be pretty small and mitigable ... perhaps even negligible compared to those of legacy energy sources. I'm not going to try to link a lot of resources, I'd just be googling for them same as you.
