I swear they looked at Bill Gates failing to launch SMRs and thought: "he's a smart guy"
this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.
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I'm looking forward to seeing the tech attitude of "move fast and break things" being brought to nuclear reactors.
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Of all the things that will never happen, this is the one that will never happen the most.
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Google has signed a deal with California startup Kairos Power for six or seven small modular reactors. The first is due in 2030
So, well after the bubble is going to pop,
Oh no, they created the means to generate non-fossil-fuel energy for nothing /s
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I got into the wrong business.
At least is technically feasible (although completely impossible to do in that timeframe)
Unlike the cold fusion energy deal that Microsoft greenwashed last year that's pure science fiction (invent, create, test and build a cold fusion reactor in just 4 years: impossible unless they got a time machine or found some alien tech in a remote cave)
Alright so you can have them funding the next generation of nuclear power, which would eventually bring this new form into the mainstream by having them deal with the costs associated with ironing out any issues they have and very likely making it economically viable…
Or…
These tech companies can use fossil fuels to power their AI. Like it or not, they arent going to stop developing AI and dat centers. They need the power either way. Solar and wind won’t keep up with that level of demand and tech companies know it. So choose. Nuclear, or fossil fuels?
as you will discover if you read, the use case for SMRs is to keep doing coal
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Like it or not, they arent going to stop developing AI and data centers.
Well they should. I'm not giving them credit for investing in vaporware nuclear plants when the ostensible plan is to waste all the power on glue pizza recipes.
I wish they at least put that money in real and known working designs available right now so at least when the fad is dead, we can maybe use that power for something else. Or they can maybe have the tiniest decency to unfuck their search engine or whatever.
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Try option three. No one is going to pay for any of that because LLMs are useless machines.
Fun Fact: it took 42 years to start Watts Bar Unit 2.
You're correct that I can't stop them from making pants on head stupid decisions, but I'm not going to stop making fun of them.
very likely making it economically viable…
They're going to fund currently economically nonviable nuclear plants to power their currently economically nonviable genAI schemes? Over the time horizon of ~~25 years~~ a decade (edit: misread the article) before they scale up energy capacity at all past the rnd stage? Maybe pants on head is too generous.