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#Tribes, #environmentalists gather forces against Amazon’s #Northwest #nuclear plan
Amazon’s push for small modular nuclear reactors [#SMR] is just the latest development in decades long fight over #NuclearEnergy
By Antonio Sierra (OPB)
Jan. 7, 2025
"Chuck Johnson was 25 years old when he helped bring Oregon’s nuclear energy industry to a sudden halt.
"Fresh out of college, Johnson helped lead signature gathering and field organizing to pass Ballot Measure 7, which banned all new nuclear power plants in the state until the U.S. had a federally licensed permanent disposal facility. When Oregon’s only nuclear energy facility was closed in 1992, the measure effectively ensured that nothing would take its place unless major changes happened.
"For decades those changes seemed unlikely, but a new push by the power-hungry tech industry has reignited interest in nuclear energy in the region.
"Amazon announced in October that it is partnering with Energy Northwest to develop and build nuclear reactors in southeast #WashingtonState that would power its #DataCenters in #Umatilla and #Morrow counties. Amazon would work with its partners to develop and roll out a novel technology – small modular nuclear reactors – without brushing up against the limits of Measure 7 because the reactors would be north of the #ColumbiaRiver.
"For Amazon, SMRs would allow the tech and e-commerce giant to harness the immense, low-carbon [sic] power potential of nuclear energy while staying true to its climate goals, and avoiding the safety and environmental concerns that have plagued traditional reactors. More than 40 years after passing Measure 7, Johnson isn’t convinced.
"'If you can’t get rid of the waste produced by these plants, it’s irresponsible for us to – for the sake of some electricity right now – leave this legacy to future generations,' he said.
"Johnson is a part of a group of environmentalists, academics and American Indian tribes who are gathering force against a nuclear energy revival in the Northwest.
"Nuclear energy opponents argue that SMRs are simply a new coat of paint on the industry’s old problems. Like traditional reactors, they say that SMRs aren’t economically feasible and risk exposing people to #NuclearRadiation in a region still recovering from its World War II legacy."
Read more:
https://www.opb.org/article/2025/01/07/tribes-environmentalist-amazon-northwest-smr-nuclear-reactor-energy/
#NoNukesForAI #NoNukesForBezos #AmazonCorporation #NoNukesForTechBros #NoNukes #NativeAmericanActivism #AntinuclearActivism #NoNukesForBigTech #BigTech #AWS #Downwinders #CorporateColonialism
Amazon’s push for small modular nuclear reactors [#SMR] is just the latest development in decades long fight over #NuclearEnergy
By Antonio Sierra (OPB)
Jan. 7, 2025
"Chuck Johnson was 25 years old when he helped bring Oregon’s nuclear energy industry to a sudden halt.
"Fresh out of college, Johnson helped lead signature gathering and field organizing to pass Ballot Measure 7, which banned all new nuclear power plants in the state until the U.S. had a federally licensed permanent disposal facility. When Oregon’s only nuclear energy facility was closed in 1992, the measure effectively ensured that nothing would take its place unless major changes happened.
"For decades those changes seemed unlikely, but a new push by the power-hungry tech industry has reignited interest in nuclear energy in the region.
"Amazon announced in October that it is partnering with Energy Northwest to develop and build nuclear reactors in southeast #WashingtonState that would power its #DataCenters in #Umatilla and #Morrow counties. Amazon would work with its partners to develop and roll out a novel technology – small modular nuclear reactors – without brushing up against the limits of Measure 7 because the reactors would be north of the #ColumbiaRiver.
"For Amazon, SMRs would allow the tech and e-commerce giant to harness the immense, low-carbon [sic] power potential of nuclear energy while staying true to its climate goals, and avoiding the safety and environmental concerns that have plagued traditional reactors. More than 40 years after passing Measure 7, Johnson isn’t convinced.
"'If you can’t get rid of the waste produced by these plants, it’s irresponsible for us to – for the sake of some electricity right now – leave this legacy to future generations,' he said.
"Johnson is a part of a group of environmentalists, academics and American Indian tribes who are gathering force against a nuclear energy revival in the Northwest.
"Nuclear energy opponents argue that SMRs are simply a new coat of paint on the industry’s old problems. Like traditional reactors, they say that SMRs aren’t economically feasible and risk exposing people to #NuclearRadiation in a region still recovering from its World War II legacy."
Read more:
https://www.opb.org/article/2025/01/07/tribes-environmentalist-amazon-northwest-smr-nuclear-reactor-energy/
#NoNukesForAI #NoNukesForBezos #AmazonCorporation #NoNukesForTechBros #NoNukes #NativeAmericanActivism #AntinuclearActivism #NoNukesForBigTech #BigTech #AWS #Downwinders #CorporateColonialism
Tribes, environmentalists gather forces against Amazon’s Northwest nuclear plan
Amazons push for small modular nuclear reactors is just the latest development in decadeslong fight over nuclear energy.Antonio Sierra (OPB)
"One of the reasons that datacenter operators have gravitated toward evaporative coolers is because they're so cheap to operate compared to alternative technologies.
"It is always of a higher coefficient of performance (COP), meaning less energy required, to evaporate water, regardless of what cooling medium is being utilized," Shelnutt said.
In fact, COP, which refers to the amount of heat removed for a given amount of power, for evaporative cooling comes in at 1,230 while dry coolers and chillers manage a COP of about 12 and 4, respectively, he explained.
In terms of energy consumption, this makes an evaporatively cooled datacenter far more energy efficient than one that doesn't consume water, and that translates to a lower operating cost.
The challenge is that not every location and climate is well suited to evaporative cooling. In hotter climates where water is either scarce or places with high humidity where evaporative coolers are ineffective, chillers, which function similar to your AC unit, may be used instead."
https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/04/how_datacenters_use_water/
#AI #DataCenters #Water #WaterScarcity #Energy
"It is always of a higher coefficient of performance (COP), meaning less energy required, to evaporate water, regardless of what cooling medium is being utilized," Shelnutt said.
In fact, COP, which refers to the amount of heat removed for a given amount of power, for evaporative cooling comes in at 1,230 while dry coolers and chillers manage a COP of about 12 and 4, respectively, he explained.
In terms of energy consumption, this makes an evaporatively cooled datacenter far more energy efficient than one that doesn't consume water, and that translates to a lower operating cost.
The challenge is that not every location and climate is well suited to evaporative cooling. In hotter climates where water is either scarce or places with high humidity where evaporative coolers are ineffective, chillers, which function similar to your AC unit, may be used instead."
https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/04/how_datacenters_use_water/
#AI #DataCenters #Water #WaterScarcity #Energy
Remember how #Skynet and #Terminators were just fine with a #nuclear devastated world? Hmmm... #BigTech is going all in on #NuclearPower as sustainability concerns around #AI grow
Yahoo Finance
Daniel Howley
October 23, 2024
"#ArtificialIntelligence has driven shares of tech companies like #Microsoft (#MSFT), #Amazon (#AMZN), #Nvidia (N#VDA), and #Google (GOOG, GOOGL) to new highs this year. But the technology, which companies promise will revolutionize our lives, is driving something else just as high as stock prices: #EnergyConsumption [and #WaterConsumption].
"#AI #DataCenters use huge amounts of power and could increase energy demand by as much as 20% over the next decade, according to a Department of Energy spokesperson. Pair that with the continued growth of the broader cloud computing market, and you’ve got an energy squeeze.
"But Big Tech has also set ambitious sustainability goals focused on the use of low-carbon and zero-carbon sources to reduce its impact on climate change. While renewable energy like solar and wind are certainly part of that equation, tech companies need uninterruptible power sources. And for that, they’re leaning into #NuclearPower.
"Tech giants aren’t just planning to hook into existing plants, either. They’re working with energy companies to bring mothballed facilities like Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island back online and looking to build small modular reactors (#SMRs) that take up less space than traditional plants and, the hope is, are cheaper to construct.
"But there are still plenty of questions as to whether these investments in nuclear energy will ever pan out, not to mention how long it will take to build any new reactors."
Read more:
https://www.aol.com/finance/big-tech-going-nuclear-power-201418756.html
#AI #NoNukesForAI #Cryptocurrency #WaterIsLife #NoNukes #RethinkNotRestart #ThreeMileIsland #TheTerminator #JudgmentDay #NuclearPowerNoThanks
Yahoo Finance
Daniel Howley
October 23, 2024
"#ArtificialIntelligence has driven shares of tech companies like #Microsoft (#MSFT), #Amazon (#AMZN), #Nvidia (N#VDA), and #Google (GOOG, GOOGL) to new highs this year. But the technology, which companies promise will revolutionize our lives, is driving something else just as high as stock prices: #EnergyConsumption [and #WaterConsumption].
"#AI #DataCenters use huge amounts of power and could increase energy demand by as much as 20% over the next decade, according to a Department of Energy spokesperson. Pair that with the continued growth of the broader cloud computing market, and you’ve got an energy squeeze.
"But Big Tech has also set ambitious sustainability goals focused on the use of low-carbon and zero-carbon sources to reduce its impact on climate change. While renewable energy like solar and wind are certainly part of that equation, tech companies need uninterruptible power sources. And for that, they’re leaning into #NuclearPower.
"Tech giants aren’t just planning to hook into existing plants, either. They’re working with energy companies to bring mothballed facilities like Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island back online and looking to build small modular reactors (#SMRs) that take up less space than traditional plants and, the hope is, are cheaper to construct.
"But there are still plenty of questions as to whether these investments in nuclear energy will ever pan out, not to mention how long it will take to build any new reactors."
Read more:
https://www.aol.com/finance/big-tech-going-nuclear-power-201418756.html
#AI #NoNukesForAI #Cryptocurrency #WaterIsLife #NoNukes #RethinkNotRestart #ThreeMileIsland #TheTerminator #JudgmentDay #NuclearPowerNoThanks
"Given that most of the country’s power is still generated from fossil fuels, this raises some obvious climate concerns. Major tech companies have started investing in next-generation energy technologies like nuclear fusion, carbon capture, and small modular nuclear reactors. But those require lead time and in some cases luck, and the same companies want new data centers now. Data center growth is already helping to extend the life of coal-fired power plants and fueling a boomlet for the gas power providers furnishing Silicon Valley titans with new turbines. There is nothing inevitable, though, about the tremendous energy demand that AI boosters say they’ll need.
“Nobody has any idea what AI electricity usage in data centers is going to be in three to four years,” says Jonathan Koomey, a researcher and consultant who studies the energy impact of internet and information technology. Electricity demand is indeed growing for the first time in over a decade, he says. Not all of that is from data centers, and larger spikes in demand are generally concentrated in places with new factories and data centers, like Virginia and Georgia. The modest overall load growth happening now, moreover, doesn’t indicate that there’s some looming crisis in which the U.S. will run out of electricity as data centers proliferate.
The bigger risk may well be that these fantastical demand projections are used to bring new fossil fueled power plants online and keep existing ones running—regardless of whether they’re actually needed. Once built, new coal or gas plants are likely to operate for decades. “When people think it’s a crisis they make big mistakes,” Koomey says. “It’s absolutely not a crisis.”"
https://newrepublic.com/article/189460/ai-data-centers-coal-fossil-fuels-energy
#USA #AI #DataCenters #FossilFuels #Energy #Electricity
“Nobody has any idea what AI electricity usage in data centers is going to be in three to four years,” says Jonathan Koomey, a researcher and consultant who studies the energy impact of internet and information technology. Electricity demand is indeed growing for the first time in over a decade, he says. Not all of that is from data centers, and larger spikes in demand are generally concentrated in places with new factories and data centers, like Virginia and Georgia. The modest overall load growth happening now, moreover, doesn’t indicate that there’s some looming crisis in which the U.S. will run out of electricity as data centers proliferate.
The bigger risk may well be that these fantastical demand projections are used to bring new fossil fueled power plants online and keep existing ones running—regardless of whether they’re actually needed. Once built, new coal or gas plants are likely to operate for decades. “When people think it’s a crisis they make big mistakes,” Koomey says. “It’s absolutely not a crisis.”"
https://newrepublic.com/article/189460/ai-data-centers-coal-fossil-fuels-energy
#USA #AI #DataCenters #FossilFuels #Energy #Electricity
What If Tech Execs Don’t Really Need All These Data Centers?
The rush to build new computing and energy infrastructure for artificial intelligence comes with a lot of unintended consequences—especially if this new infrastructure isn’t actually needed.The New Republic