Alcun Atirutan BBS

Yeah, because they've done such a bang-up job with Windows. I'm sure this will be fine.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/09/20/microsoft-three-mile-island-nuclear-constellation/

@briankrebs I'm not *that* worried. Microsoft won't be running it directly and the plant was fully operational and generating power until 2019. Unit 1 is still in full working order and was shut down due to lack of demand.

@briankrebs
After 45 years somebody thinks they can resurrect a *failed* plant that has been unmaintained for 45 years. Based on technology that was 20 years old when it failed in 1979.
We apparently don't have enough MBAs yet to reach critical mass.

@AG100pct Unit 1 at TMI is in perfect working order has been generating power for decades. It was shut down and put on hold in 2019 due to lack of demand.

@developing_agent
ShutterBugged...sorry for length.
I certainly did not know that.
That is very interesting.
However, it also speaks volumes that they abandoned a working plant because of the economics.
I'm not a "No Nukes" kind of guy, but I am a puzzled about how (especially older) plants are economical to think about.
Any good references for the state of nuclear power today?
Hasn't the big problem always been disposal/storage?
I live where some of the material was refined for original atomic bombs. It is still a problem and people are still dying here 80 years later.
Again not saying it can or should never be done, but holy smokes it deserves a second, third, fourth or fifth thought.
Thanks for the info!

@AG100pct These days the world leader in nuclear waste processing is france. They spend half their capacity recycling their own reactor waste and half their capacity recycling the waste of other countries. This allows the reuse of the vast majority of the fuel. A very small remaining fraction has to be buried, though we *could* be destroying it permanently in fast neutron reactors.

@developing_agent
and BTW, the government is still not owning up to the massive cleanup.

@AG100pct The USA actually built their own reprocessing facility, but shut it down before using it. Ostensibly this is because it would set a bad example for countries like iran. The reprocessing recovers as a byproduct weapons-grade plutonium. The french solve this problem by intentionally mixing this plutonium into a special kind of reactor fuel, which makes it useless for weapons.

@AG100pct Nuclear chemistry has also in general gotten a lot better since the 70's, which reduces the amount of waste.

Waste reprocessing isn't very profitable by itself and probably won't ever be, but it might well be worthwhile "on balance" in combination with nuclear energy as a massive source of zero-carbon energy.

@developing_agent
Fascinating stuff. I learned just enough about Chemistry to get by.
Sounds like you work in the industry. 👍

@AG100pct I don't, but I keep a close eye on it. Renewables like solar and wind are nice, but they consume a lot of environmental land and require battery solutions that don't 100% exist yet in order to match human demand patterns. Nuclear is a technology we've had a lot of time to figure out, and which can provide a lot of power in a very small footprint and with very small amounts of fuel. It's not a bad zero-carbon bridging technology.

@AG100pct Around here we were able to ditch all the coal plants in 2013, and thanks to 60% of our power coming from nuclear, only about 7% of our total energy generation produces CO2.

@developing_agent @AG100pct

"though we *could* be destroying it permanently in fast neutron reactors."

I am so tired of aspirational bullshit in this thread.

@artemesia Aspirational bullshit?

It is a FACT that France recycles their waste, and that they dispose of what remains properly. They lead the world, and process the waste for several other countries besides.

It is also a FACT that TMI has been safely generating power for decades, through Regan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump.

If you want to destroy waste too talk to the CCP. They're making it happen. If you're in the USA, ask your rep why the US shuttered their reprocessing plant.

@developing_agent

"It is a FACT that France recycles their waste"

Bullshit, honey, even if you use allcaps. They "reprocess" it, which is not the same thing as recycle. And once reprocessed, it still needs eons-long safe storage underground, thus the concept of a plan to build such an underground facility under Bure. Reprocessing lets you extract an additional use cycle from the fuel, which is economically useful, but the waste remains. When France reprocesses waste for other countries, they send that waste back to the country of origin. Where are you getting your propaganda talking points from? Drudge report?

"a FACT that TMI has been safely generating power for decades"

TMI(1)'s past "safe" power generation ain't done until the nuclear fuel waste is disposed of. That hasn't happened, it sits onsite. TMI(2), not so much safety there.

"talk to the CCP"

I said upthread that citing countries that ignore human health concerns at gunpoint will get you blocked.

<PLONK>

@artemesia