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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@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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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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[–] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 78 points 2 months ago (18 children)

Personally? I don't think this is a bad idea. The less they drain from the grid, the less they consume fossil fuel.

The reactor isn't active right now, and they are a PWR design, and like the 1979 incident showed, they do fail safely.

So long as Microsoft pays for the operation of the plant? Seems reasonable to me if they're going to consume an assload of energy with or without public support.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 28 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I remember I had to do the 3 mile Island incident as part of my university degree. Apparently one of the biggest problems was that the control interface was hard to understand for the human operators.

So I guess if they just replaced the control system with a modern computer that would fix most of the problems. Obviously not a Windows system, otherwise we've just got the same issue all over again.

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

So I guess if they just replaced the control system with a modern computer that would fix most of the problems

Introducing new Clippy For Reactors.

[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 5 points 2 months ago

"It looks like you are trying to prevent a nuclear meltdown. I can help with that."

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