Highlights
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In recent months, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have all signed agreements to help boost the development of reactors and restart decommissioned ones. Their agreements are a huge endorsement for the nuclear industry and a sign that the tide against it may be turning.But getting these ambitious projects to the finish line is far from assured, if the industry’s track record is any guide. Of the 94 reactors currently active in the U.S., only four were built within the past three decades.
My Thoughts
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- It is really interesting to look at the collateral markets being affected by the AI boom. Who would have thought that nuclear power would sweep in to save the day. It feels like welcoming an old drunk uncle back to thanksgiving dinner. But if these majors players are going to meet their targets for carbon neutrality by 2030 something has to give. Coal is not great, Hydro power is only feasible if you live in Quebec, solar and wind are not feasible to generate the kind of gigawatts that these companies need to compute AI requests. So welcome back to the table drunk uncle Nuclear. Just try to behave yourself this time and not explode.
The issue does remain what to do with the nuclear waste that is a byproduct of producing the energy. It is mostly water that is cooling the reactors but the water becomes radioactive and it needs to go somewhere. How about send it on one of Elon’s rockets and dump it in space. Just brainstorming here.
That being said, look at the deals that these companies are making and if you’d like to dig a bit deeper, what does nuclear need to work. A shit tone of uranium and plutonium. So look at companies that are investing heavily in uranium mining and production. Small reactors are also a thing, small sure, but they are still the size of a small building. More to come on this.
- It is really interesting to look at the collateral markets being affected by the AI boom. Who would have thought that nuclear power would sweep in to save the day. It feels like welcoming an old drunk uncle back to thanksgiving dinner. But if these majors players are going to meet their targets for carbon neutrality by 2030 something has to give. Coal is not great, Hydro power is only feasible if you live in Quebec, solar and wind are not feasible to generate the kind of gigawatts that these companies need to compute AI requests. So welcome back to the table drunk uncle Nuclear. Just try to behave yourself this time and not explode.
Metadata
- Author: [[David Meyer]]
- Full Title: Big Tech Is the Nuclear Industry’s New Best Friend: Amazon, Microsoft and Google Rush to Sign Deals
- Category: #articles
- Summary: The companies are depending on nuclear energy to power their massive AI operations.
- URL: https://stocks.apple.com/AlNbElkc0REu22Xux29-6aw