Nuclear reactors & Solar Power satellites for AI data centers.

???Major news outlets such as the Associated Press and Reuters recently ran a story that seemed to be more fitting for a sci-fi novel:? the formerly decommissioned Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania is to restart operations to provide Microsoft’s data centres with carbon-neutral power for AI and cloud computing.

Three Mile Island was the site of the largest civilian nuclear accident in US history back in 1979. Which involved a partial nuclear meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor The Unit 2 reactor accident released radioactive gases and iodine into the environment. While the meltdown was only a fraction of the severity of the most famous Chernobyl disaster it led to a decades-long process of cleaning up the Three Mile Island reactor complex.

There were no deaths or injuries during the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island however unlike Chernobyl which killed 30 people from explosive debris or radiation sickness and an untold number of other persons from long-term effects such as thyroid cancer.

The Three Mile Island Unit 1 reactor still operated until 2019 when it was shut down due to financial constraints.

The Reuters reported :

“Under the Constellation-Microsoft deal, Microsoft will purchase energy from the restarted plant for 20 years. The Three Mile Island unit will provide 835 megawatts of electricity or enough to power about 700,000 homes”

The Microsoft deal is unprecedented in scope and shows that the buildout of the infrastructure for artificial intelligence will require large investments in energy grids and data centres.

T&T should give incentives to companies to develop energy infrastructure to power future data centres. Given declining natural gas reserves a move to solar and wind energy should be considered alongside possible data centre businesses in Trinidad.

AI Data centres in space

Geekwire.com reported that the new tech startup Lumen Orbit raised $2.4 million in funding to support their big idea: Data centres in space.

Lead engineer Adi Oltean was quoted as saying.

“We started Lumen with the mission of launching a constellation of orbital data centres for in-space edge processing,” Oltean explained in an email. “Essentially, other satellites will send our constellation the raw data they collect. Using our onboard GPUs, we will run AI models of their choosing to extract insights, which we will then downlink for them. This will save bandwidth downlinking large amounts of raw data and associated cost and latency.”

Lumen Orbit will essentially use geostationary solar satellites that receive sunlight 24 hours a day. One major problem with solar panels on Earth is that they get no energy at night or during bad weather. Energy grids on earth either need to rely on storing solar energy at a high cost or use fossil fuels or nuclear plants to stabilise the energy grid when solar is not available.

Solar panels in space do not face any of these challenges as they can be placed to always face the sun, and therefore no large batteries or backup generators are needed.

It is estimated that once companies like SpaceX get the cost of launching large satellites down to around USD 8 million the company’s plan will be profitable.

? Lumen estimates that a single 40-megawatt Data Center operating for 10 years in space would save money when compared to a similar-sized data centre on Earth which would have to consume around USD 100 million in energy costs over the same period. A Lumen Orbit data centre will not have to pay for electricity or water for cooling its chips and therefore make economic sense long term.

Data Centres in space will also save the real estate cost that land-based Data Centres have to pay.

One major hurdle to Lumen Orbit’s idea is the problem of cooling, Data Centres on Earth use huge HVAC units or water to keep their chips from overheating, however in space, there is no air or water to absorb and transport heat with. In addition to huge solar panels, Lumen Orbit satellites will also need huge radiators that would radiate the heat into space as electromagnetic energy.

While Lumen Orbit’s idea seems a little crazy, the AI boom has already pushed companies to refurbish nuclear reactors that have undergone meltdowns. A solar and space-based future for data centre technology may ultimately be greener and safer than a nuclear-powered AI future.

Published in the Trindad and Tobago Guardian October 8th 2024