Technology

They’re going to build it in 2026 but it’ll still somehow be running on XP.

They'll probably not use Windows, instead opting for an OS that is proven to work with already running reactors, like QNX

Even Microsoft does not trust Windows on Azure 🤣

Modern nuclear reactors are designed to fail safely, so Windows couldn’t actually create a Chernobyl. Everything wrong with nuclear in our world is with old-gen plants. It’s a technology that got ahead of itself by 50 years.

This gave me an idea for some level design I might want to use in a video game.

Hey, whatever keeps them out of Walmart parking lots at 1am.

If they're actually using a new type nuclear reactor, the small portable ones, then the waste is both incredibly small and recyclable. Nuclear technology has come a long way since the decades old reactors, we just haven't built very many new ones to showcase that.

As noted elsewhere, these don't create the same kind of spent fuel as a PWR. So that helps.

But also, the people who designed the PWRs didn't just say "and then we'll make shitloads of unmanageable waste lol!" Up until the Carter Administration, we ran a system called "reprocessing" that essentially shredded and dissolved the old fuel rods, isolated the metals chemically, and packed out separately.

France does this. Finland does this. Japan does this. Their waste concerns are negligible compared to ours.

Meanwhile Carter, bless his heart, determined that reprocessing was a proliferation risk, and shut down the US industry, saying "y'all will figure out a way to dispose of these things".

So now we are using circular saws to hack these things apart, cramming them into barrels stuffed with kitty litter (you read that right), and hoping that nothing will happen to the barrels for 50 million years?

Long-term waste disposal became an impossible problem to solve in the US because our one and only allegedly nuclear-savvy president made the solution to the problem illegal. It became one immediately, and has never stopped being one.

They might get bored though. Maybe hook them up to some kind of virtual reality world.

They could just invest in a solar farm or something, they are just a lot more economical.

Nuclear is okay, but the costs compared to renewables are very high, and you have to put a lot of effort and security into building a reactor, compared to a solar panel that you can basically just put up and replace if it snaps.

You probably know this discussion already through.

Edit: Glad to see a nice instance of the discussion going here.

This may actually be one of those things where it turns out to be worth it (for them anyway), if they can get some major technological advancements out of it.

There are so many other things in the world that are way more wasteful and way more pointless.

I guess history does repeat itself. Next you’ll be telling me that 640GB of RAM is enough.

Do nuclear reactors use coal?