Recent news that Microsoft has signed a deal Restart Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant To operate an AI data center, eachnuclear level catastrophe”
Whether or not AI is mature enough to provide astronomical amounts of energy supplies to it, powering it with renewable energy is critical to the future and security of our energy.
Mark Jacobson, director of the Atmosphere and Energy Program at Stanford University, says, “Every dollar spent on nuclear power means every dollar spent on clean renewable energy makes the world a relatively dirtier and more dangerous place.'' Every dollar spent increases because nuclear power and nuclear weapons are closely related.
It would be a mistake to think that nuclear power makes sense when compared to renewable energy. In fact, nuclear energy and its carcinogenic radioactive waste is the most dangerous and financially risky energy option.
transaction Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature's agreement with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to extend the life of its last nuclear power plant, the Diablo Nuclear Power Plant, will help California ratepayers in the coming years. They will continue to pay some of the highest electricity rates in the United States. However, the state's rapid transition to renewable energy and estimated power generation make such rate increases unnecessary. 13,391MW The battery storage capacity is far greater than the 2,200 MW produced by the Diablo Canyon reactor.
Now is the time to chill and double down on renewable energy. and AI’s energy demands increaseother states are considering following the same expensive and dangerous path as the country's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant site in Pennsylvania. Worst commercial nuclear accident. Even with Microsoft's investment, the deal relies on large government subsidies. Without these government grants, it would be impossible to power AI data centers with nuclear power.
Nuclear power plants cost billions of dollars to build and billions of dollars to upgrade. That's why the nuclear industry relies on taxes, tax credits (such as Three Mile Island), and ratepayers paying high electricity bills.
In the event of a nuclear power plant accident, similar costs would be borne by the public. A nuclear-level catastrophe at a nuclear power plant would expose the nation to uninsurable property losses, astronomical cleanup costs, and, more importantly, to young children, especially those most vulnerable to radiation. , resulting in very real human costs. of No solution exists for nuclear waste disposal The risk of radiation exposure extends even further into the future, tens of thousands of years from now.
When questions arise about the safety of nuclear power plants, as in Diablo Canyon (It was unknowingly built along an active fault.) and FukushimaThree Mile Island Chernobyl and Santa Susana Field Lab With everything happening in our lifetime, it is abundantly clear that nuclear accidents will happen. The fallout isn't worth the risk.
Big tech companies need to find more energy-efficient ways to run their AI data centers and work with governments to redirect major energy investments to clean, renewable energy that makes the world dirtier and less dangerous.
Linda Parks is the director of Mothers for Peace, an organization working to decommission the Diablo nuclear power plant. She is the executive director of Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources of Ventura County and serves on the board of the Environmental Defense Center. She served on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors from 2003 to 2022 and also served as mayor and City Council member of Thousand Oaks. While she was a supervisor, she served as chair of the Ventura County Regional Energy Alliance and was a founding member and vice chair of the Clean Power Alliance.
