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Atomarine: Nuclear Data Centers at Sea

atomarine.co

71–80 of 82 posts

Re: Atomarine: Nuclear Data Centers at Sea

#71

Current nuclear-powered ships are run by the world’s premier naval powers and protected by their own stealth or a huge array of armed escort ships. Have these guys factored in the cost of a task force of protective missile frigates, subs, and destroyers at each site?

Proliferation resistant reactors should probably be used.

Like.... LFTR

Basically, the normal operation of the reactor doesn't allow the production of weapons-useful nuclear isotopes.

You'll probably also need a smaller footprint reactor

Like.... LFTR

And you'll want something that can be turned on, shut off, and has natural anti-meltdown abilities in case hurricanes or other disasters threaten the ractor

Like ... LFTR

Re: Atomarine: Nuclear Data Centers at Sea

#73
post #70

Am I the one who's out of touch, or is this absolutely insane? Let me summarize the state of the AI black hole right now: Data centers! Everyone wants more data centers! But how do I get in on the craze? I think the brightest investors of our generation are hungry for data centers placed in weird places. Space data centers, underwater data centers, data centers in the Earth's core and on a space elevator! I got it -…

I think you left off figuring out how to connect a floating data center to the internet without making that aspect as expensive as powering the thing in the first place.

Re: Atomarine: Nuclear Data Centers at Sea

#74
The one thing I enjoy about our AI goldrush driven economy is all the cartoonish cash grabs coming out of the woodwork to try and part investors from their money.

1. 4-5x faster deployment than on land

- Not that this will ever be built but if it were, I assume Newport News or Electric Boat would be fitting the nuclear reactor (unless they cheap out and go with an import). Given they are booked solid until the 2040s somehow this company is even slower than the nuclear industry at building land based plants.

2. 1.5 GW deployed per year

- Starting in which year?

3. 1.1 PUE seawater cooling, modeled.

- Well there you have it, they modeled it, so it's basically already built.

4. 20-40 year infrastructure life

- Remind me how many 20 year old servers are currently running AI workloads? Oh, I guess that just means the ships and the nuclear reactor. I mean I guess that's good, it's not like a building on land would last that long...

Oh but I guess they will just be using LNG to start with, thank goodness that is alot easier to get than nuclear. In fact now is a really good time to start this as I heard there's some companies looking to offload a few LNG tankers somewhere in the gulf for a steal!

Re: Atomarine: Nuclear Data Centers at Sea

#75
post #20

Current nuclear-powered ships are run by the world’s premier naval powers and protected by their own stealth or a huge array of armed escort ships. Have these guys factored in the cost of a task force of protective missile frigates, subs, and destroyers at each site?

Nuclear submarines often operate without any escort. Russian nuclear icebreakers and floating SMRs also do not have heavy military escorts.

Attempt a hostile takeover and see how long the response takes. It doesn't matter how far away the assets are if they can either make it to your position before you accomplish your goal or else credibly hunt you down after the fact. I don't think "theft of nuclear material from a russian naval icebreaker" is a realistic possibility.

Re: Atomarine: Nuclear Data Centers at Sea

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a drop in a bucket. Global warming is due to ~5e18 Wh of excess heating. A nuke dumping 5e12 Wh of additional heat into water makes no difference at all.

Drops add up, just like using gas, oil, coal...

No, they really don't in this case. IIRC a sustained gigawatt of output over a 24 hour period is roughly equivalent to the sunlight absorbed by a 5 square kilometer patch of ocean in the tropics over the same period of time. The oceans absorb an almost incomprehensible amount of solar energy on a daily basis.

Re: Atomarine: Nuclear Data Centers at Sea

#77
post #70

Am I the one who's out of touch, or is this absolutely insane? Let me summarize the state of the AI black hole right now: Data centers! Everyone wants more data centers! But how do I get in on the craze? I think the brightest investors of our generation are hungry for data centers placed in weird places. Space data centers, underwater data centers, data centers in the Earth's core and on a space elevator! I got it -…

I think you left off figuring out how to connect a floating data center to the internet without making that aspect as expensive as powering the thing in the first place.

I think that's actually the easiest part of this entire thing? Assuming you're anchored you just dangle a subsea cable directly underneath the platform.

Note that there are already some pilot ocean based datacenter projects. The most recent one I'm aware of is attached to nearshore wind. I have to imagine that makes far more sense than floating a civilian nuclear reactor on the high seas.

Re: Atomarine: Nuclear Data Centers at Sea

#78

The one thing I enjoy about our AI goldrush driven economy is all the cartoonish cash grabs coming out of the woodwork to try and part investors from their money. 1. 4-5x faster deployment than on land - Not that this will ever be built but if it were, I assume Newport News or Electric Boat would be fitting the nuclear reactor (unless they cheap out and go with an import). Given they are booked solid until the 2040s…

I wonder if the business model is to operate on the high seas, where sanctions do not apply….

Re: Atomarine: Nuclear Data Centers at Sea

#79

Genuinely, have these guys done anything other than AI generated ship pictures? The top down ones look like they didn’t even use a good model. I’d be stunned if anyone takes this seriously

There are some very stupid VC folks around. I have spoken to some, and watched them shart millions away on the back of a powerpoint and some stage presence

How do I get in front of these people? I have legit business ideas, and it’s frustrating to hear how easy it is to get VC money. I want a piece of that cake.

Re: Atomarine: Nuclear Data Centers at Sea

#80

The one thing I enjoy about our AI goldrush driven economy is all the cartoonish cash grabs coming out of the woodwork to try and part investors from their money. 1. 4-5x faster deployment than on land - Not that this will ever be built but if it were, I assume Newport News or Electric Boat would be fitting the nuclear reactor (unless they cheap out and go with an import). Given they are booked solid until the 2040s…

I wonder if the business model is to operate on the high seas, where sanctions do not apply….

I'm not sure what sanctions you are thinking about but generally if you want to be beyond the legal reach of a nation state or group of nation states, you just set up a server in a different nation state that doesn't enforce the laws you want to avoid.
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