the 'Stuff That's Just Really Interesting 'thread

[Marzipan]

galaxies are way bigger than originally realized.

Galaxies are way bigger than we thought, new research shows – DW – 09/06/2024

Galaxies are much bigger than we originally thought, extending far out into deep space — so far that the Milky Way likely interacts with our closest neighbor, Andromeda.

www.dw.com

 

[Marzipan]

Polaris Dawn has finally launched, which is the first all-commercial space flight with planned space walk.

Billionaire Finally Launches on First Private Space-Walk Mission

Hampered last month by bad weather, launch tower problems, and issues with its ride from SpaceX, the Polaris Dawn mission is at last on its way.

www.wired.com

 

[Marzipan]

Oracle has gotten permission to build three SMR (Small Moduar Reactor) to power their future data center's. each one will produce about 1GW of power.

Oracle will use three small nuclear reactors to power new 1-gigawatt AI data center

Oracle wants to go nuclear.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[sswilson]

I'm not sure I'm a big fan of letting individual corps run their own nuke reactors........

I get that these are probably intended to be self enclosed, no user maintenance devices, but that still doesn't fill me with a warm fuzzy.

 

[Marzipan]

I'm not sure I'm a big fan of letting individual corps run their own nuke reactors........

I get that these are probably intended to be self enclosed, no user maintenance devices, but that still doesn't fill me with a warm fuzzy.

they're essentially the same thing the US has in their smaller nuclear powered naval vessels. but I agree...the level of oversight and logistics for monitoring to ensure everything is under control, etc., etc., etc., is going to be mind blowing!

anyone know how many kilotons a 1GW reactor would let out if it decided to 'splode?

 

[Lysrin]

I'm not sure I'm a big fan of letting individual corps run their own nuke reactors........

I get that these are probably intended to be self enclosed, no user maintenance devices, but that still doesn't fill me with a warm fuzzy.

Nuclear, especially the SMR and similar, are one of the bright spots for actual sustainable green energy imo. I think we should have a lot more of them coming online, especially in a future pushing towards wind and solar that can't produce reliable power 100% of the time.

EDIT: Now, yes... corps running them themselves, may need some oversight But the SMR are a pretty interesting design from a safety perspective, at least the ones I've researched.

 

[sswilson]

Nuclear, especially the SMR and similar, are one of the bright spots for actual sustainable green energy imo. I think we should have a lot more of them coming online, especially in a future pushing towards wind and solar that can't produce reliable power 100% of the time.

I support their use wholeheartedly, I just believe they should be regulated/monitored by government agencies. I don't trust profit driven entities to self regulate when it comes to public safety.

 

[Lysrin]

I support their use wholeheartedly, I just believe they should be regulated/monitored by government agencies. I don't trust profit driven entities to self regulate when it comes to public safety.

Agreed, my edit to my post must have passed yours in ether-space. I figured that was what you meant so I added the edit to my post

 

[Marzipan]

the only problem, as in an unintended consequence, is how much easier it would be for homeland terrorist attacks with massive negative effects.

 

[Lysrin]

the only problem, as in an unintended consequence, is how much easier it would be for homeland terrorist attacks with massive negative effects.

You'd have to research them. Really not much more risk than a lot of other things. There are all kinds of cataclysmic things bad people can do, but that doesn't make the tech inherently negative.