259 points

The thought of a nuclear reactor running on Windows is terrifying.

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87 points

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

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59 points

“What operating system is that running?”

“Uh… vista.”

“We’re all going to die!”

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18 points

If they make it Windows ME then we ARE ALL DEAD!

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10 points

Have you tried turning it off and back on again?

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27 points

XP is still a solid OS as long as you don’t connect to the internet.

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35 points

A nuclear reactor connected to the internet sounds like a bad idea.

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36 points

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

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18 points

They should run Arch, btw

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More stable than Windows I guess

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36 points

Even Microsoft does not trust Windows on Azure 🤣

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31 points

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.

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9 points
*

Yeah, there’s very little information in the article on what type of reactor they plan to use, but I hope they’re able to go with something like a molten salt reactor with a thorium fuel cycle.

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10 points

Getting half a dozen of those built and in use would be exactly the kind of thing that tech billionaires are actually good for.

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3 points

The picture they show is from terrapower, the company Bill Gates funded, which is a thorium reactor. Thorium liquid salt reactors are still difficult because of the metallurgy. I believe they were supposed to fit the small modular concept though.

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-10 points
Deleted by creator
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11 points

Hm… risk of nuclear disaster? Or more expense? Hm… I’ll have to think about this one.

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12 points

Lol, even Microsoft wouldn’t use Windows to train AI.

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10 points

Like Microsoft uses Windows for anything that matters since they got rid of Balmer.

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2 points

But… Developers!.. /s

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2 points

A lot of them do IIRC, windows 98 is popping into my mind as an instance I’ve read of

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3 points

Windows NT or 2000. Not 98.

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7 points
*

Ah yes you’re correct, Windows 98 is (was?) the British nuclear submarines

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1 point

Could be worse, could be running MacOS. Surely nothing bad can happen while the entire system freezes for no reason for 15 minutes or more without any possible input from the user. It will always fix it self… (hopefully before the reactor achieves a run away meltdown chain.)

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1 point

What are you running? I’ve never had an issue like that at all

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0 points
*

Reminds me of that time the technodork ran his minecraft reactor with opencomputers and lost his base because the computer blue screened. Almost as funny as that time the entire city lit up because they were using raw radio signals to control their reactor and a nearby thunderstrike instructed the reactor to drop all the fuel and go supercritical. This is why you add realism to video games, it leads to hilarious stuff like this.

EDIT: That was actually the same server where they sabotaged the entire electrical grid to blow up everyone’s base as a send-off and mine was the only one standing at the end because I was the only one who bothered to set up a surge protector under OHSA (Omega Haxors? Safety!? AHAHAHAH!) it just so happened that the system designed to save the grid from my many exploits just so happened to work in reverse.

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190 points

A corporation running a nuclear reactor to train AIs might just be the most cyberpunk news headline I’ve ever seen.

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33 points

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

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7 points

I’d play that, the fact that you’d include this content sounds dope

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3 points

I just like element-based levels in video games. Even water levels. Some even can present some time-based challenges, like saving a nuclear reactor from meltdown, or retrieving something from an area like that.

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4 points

I wanna play your game lol

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1 point
*
Deleted by creator
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168 points

Better than coal or oil, it might even result in more R&D into reactor designs.

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83 points

Yeah, I don’t understand why building a relatively clean energy source is a bad thing. Reactors are now like 3+ generations past the versions that were super dangerous. Hell, they even have reactors that can use spent fuel from other reactors.

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53 points

Oil lobby and other interests. Follow the money. Plus it’s easy to play on people’s fears about radioactive waste.

Oh well, countries that know what’s what just quietly build and use their reactors and go about their business. Finland for example is set for a while now.

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22 points

Environmental groups are the biggest opposition to new nuclear builds.

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9 points

Someone on here made an interesting argument showing how conservative politicians are actually pushing nuclear hard. They do this to steer interest away from other renewables, but also because they know nuclear will go nowhere. It’s politically unviable with voters and regulatory bodies. The point is that the bottommost issue is public perception and bias against it. If we could overcome that, we’d at least have a fighting chance.

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40 points
*

There’s no shortage of modern reactor designs. We have amazing stuff designed and even prototyped and proven - low waste, safely-failing reactors that basically can’t melt down. All we really lack is funding and regulatory clearance to build more.

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7 points

Cortana, can you design a nuclear reactor to train you better?

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4 points

Searching “Design a nuclear reactor to train you better” on Bing…

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4 points

Yes daddy

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0 points

This is part of their plan to reduce carbon emissions.

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2 points

This is what corporations mean when they say “reduce carbon emissions”

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1 point

You say that like it’s a bad thing

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154 points

I thought this crazy energy consumption shit would cool off a bit after assholes stopped bitcoin mining.

Glad AI stepped up so we can generate bad art and prose while buttfucking the planet

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26 points

Ok, hear me out: crypto, based on “proof of training an AI”

If it takes so much power, it must be secure, and this way it wouldn’t be “totally wasted”…

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23 points

The planet will be alright. It will be lush green in a few million years when humans no longer exist.

The current ecosystem, though… yeah. Buttfucked.

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11 points

Cryptocoins, blockchain, NFTs, AI craze. It’s all the same people who think that the solution to the problems that capitalism has created is technology.

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7 points

The GPU manufacturers are having the time of their lives.

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92 points

So we finally get thorium power, but its only used to make celebrity porn for incels.

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35 points

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

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10 points
*

Like there’s somewhere better to buy celebrity porn at 1am. Psh. I’ll believe it when I see it.

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11 points

Nice!

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2 points

Honestly getting Thorium power AND never having Incels leave their home or interact with society again sounds like a win-win.

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