3 mile island nuclear facility bto restart. Provide 100% of output to Microsoft to power AI

[steross]

Meta's plans to build a new, nuclear-powered data center for AI fell through because of rare bees

Meta's plans for a new data center were scuttled by environmental complications.

fortune.com

Here you go..... It's hard to do good things with all the regulations we have. Wind turbines kill thousands of birds, including raptors and migratory birds.....no problem. Nuclear facility to power innovation with no emissions......rare bees halt project.

Wind turbines are friendlier to birds than oil-and-gas drilling

Contrary to what opponents of wind farms fear

www.economist.com

 

[Donnyboy]

Wind turbines are friendlier to birds than oil-and-gas drilling

Contrary to what opponents of wind farms fear

www.economist.com

pay wall stopped me.

 

[UrbanCowboy]

Wind turbines are friendlier to birds than oil-and-gas drilling

Contrary to what opponents of wind farms fear

www.economist.com

I always loved the 'windmills kill hundreds of thousands of birds a year' argument when household cats kill over 1-2 Billion a year. Bird safety is such a non-argument, lol.

 

[GratefulPoke]

I always loved the 'windmills kill hundreds of thousands of birds a year' argument when household cats kill over 1-2 Billion a year. Bird safety is such a non-argument, lol.

Its easily avoidable by painting one of the 3 turbines black. That is the fix.

 

[Donnyboy]

I always loved the 'windmills kill hundreds of thousands of birds a year' argument when household cats kill over 1-2 Billion a year. Bird safety is such a non-argument, lol.

Feral cats kill the most of everything and it's not close

My point is if a thermal...and apparently nuke....plant kills anything it's a big big deal. Worked at a plant where an owl had a nest that was ran over while mowing. (yeah I know I never knew an owl would have a nest on the ground don't know how it happened but it did) and 3 baby owls were killed. They shut the place down for over a week.....despite the fact the site of the accident was on the opposite end of 300+ acre site nowhere near any equipment near a creek that we had partnered with the state to create a wetland environment so they were in control of the area. There was a period where they considered shutting the whole place down (1000 MW facility) for 6 months for an investigation. Wind farms are killing birds.....go to one and you will physically see them.....but it isn't an issue because wind is green. Wind farms will not be the reason anything goes extinct...not saying that. Any other kind of plant and it's an non-starter. I have a hard time believing relocating said bees couldn't be done for a rounding error in the project costs of the nuke build especially for a company with the resources of Meta. The rules are different for the worst way to make power.....and prohibitive for arguably the best way to make power. The world isn't ready for the demand data centers are creating.....they are building the equivalent usage to large cities in one fence rapidly and they need constant reliable power so renewables will not be involved. We are about to rapidly increase the carbon footprint and power usage.....don't let bees stand in way of what is described as an existential threat of climate change when you don't care about the birds.

Side note for irony: Same plant has air cooled condensers.....think massive steam pipes like 6' diameter with tons of fans blowing across them.....with tons of supports that are great places for pigeons to nest. The pigeons began building nests throughout the plant and creating operational issues. Given the owl event the state was brought in for suggestions on how to address the issues.....the recommendation bring in raptors to hunt and kill and the pigeons. And let me tell you the falcons don't miss.

 

[KK10]

raptors to hunt and kill and the pigeons. And let me tell you the falcons don't miss.

I got to escort a falconer around for this reason. Was a blast to watch, but the rate they were "re-homing" the pigeons was not going to get the job done.
Our best pigeon control was a pair of falcons that were "homed" here. Those MFers can eradicate pigeons in a hurry. They can also harass operators trying to check equipment.

 

[Vakarian74]

wonder where that private corporation is going to store its hazardous waste?

The newer tech can use spent fuel from older tech I believe. Much less waste than there used to be. Also I believe the meltdowns if they happen would be much smaller. It’s not perfect but if you want to get away from oil for energy this has to be one of the options.

 

[Vakarian74]

I always loved the 'windmills kill hundreds of thousands of birds a year' argument when household cats kill over 1-2 Billion a year. Bird safety is such a non-argument, lol.

It’s not about the birds it’s just about Oil people hating anything that hurts their business.

 

[Donnyboy]

It’s not about the birds it’s just about Oil people hating anything that hurts their business.

If you knew how many wind leases were originated or held by oil companies you’d know better.

They make subsidiaries named like New Horizon LLC and get an interconnection agreement and get transmission and high voltages switchgear installed in places where even distribution level power is scarce using renewable money from the govt.. Then they either just use the wires to power wells or sign power purchase agreements on the wind they already own.