Nuclear-powered cryptomining facilities are coming to the US

[StrikerRocket]

Not easy to unpack what's going on here, but am I right that this is a company that owns an existing nuclear power plant, that is looking to monetize existing excess capacity by mining with it?

If I were a ratepayer in the county I'd sure want to know the mining subsidiary was paying at least at much for its electricity as I was.

So much for the law of offer and demand and all this BS... Excess capacity should translate in lower rates, no? Isn't that what everyone is told is the basis of economics? Remember ENRON and all the others?

In France, everytime a commodity has been transfered to private investors, prices have skyrocketed, be it electricity or water for example. Just a legal scam bound to fuel resentment and violence globally.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Don't think so. Not in the US.

You mean NOT YET in the US. I mean, FFS, look what just happened to a high-end condo building in Florida! It's clear that putting profits over everything else is a very dangerous trend in the US and it hasn't stopped yet.

Did you not notice that nobody in the media was the least bit outraged that something like that could happen on US soil? I sure did because the first thing that went through my mind was "How the hell did this happen in the USA?", a question that NOBODY in the US corporate media put forth. Then it gets out that the repairs to this building's foundation should have been performed years ago and yet, they weren't. The fact that this happened is a HUGE red flag that people are choosing to ignore. Never say "Not in the US" because the USA is more driven by corporate greed and callousness than any other country in all of NATO. Under those conditions, anything and everything bad becomes possible.

Your assertion that something like this cannot happen in the USA is absurd because if it could happen in Japan, it could happen in the USA as well.

 

[Avro Arrow]

It doesn't generate hot water. It sits and decays.

For literally hundreds of years...

 

[Avro Arrow]

So much for the law of offer and demand and all this BS... Excess capacity should translate in lower rates, no? Isn't that what everyone is told is the basis of economics? Remember ENRON and all the others?

In France, everytime a commodity has been transfered to private investors, prices have skyrocketed, be it electricity or water for example. Just a legal scam bound to fuel resentment and violence globally.

This is why every time some politician even inferred that a public utility should be privatised in Canada, they found themselves out of government in short order. Our water and energy utilities are government-owned and operated and we'd have it no other way. The only possible exception to this is Alberta and the rest of Canada doesn't know what they're thinking half the time but I don't think that even they have privatised their utilities.

 

[Arbie]

You mean NOT YET in the US. I mean, FFS, look what just happened to a high-end condo building in Florida! It's clear that putting profits over everything else is a very dangerous trend in the US and it hasn't stopped yet.

Did you not notice that nobody in the media was the least bit outraged that something like that could happen on US soil? I sure did because the first thing that went through my mind was "How the hell did this happen in the USA?", a question that NOBODY in the US corporate media put forth. Then it gets out that the repairs to this building's foundation should have been performed years ago and yet, they weren't. The fact that this happened is a HUGE red flag that people are choosing to ignore. Never say "Not in the US" because the USA is more driven by corporate greed and callousness than any other country in all of NATO. Under those conditions, anything and everything bad becomes possible.

Your assertion that something like this cannot happen in the USA is absurd because if it could happen in Japan, it could happen in the USA as well.

With all due respect Avro, all aspects of nuclear are rigidly regulated in the US. I've worked on the waste storage systems and dealt directly with those regs. That's why I don't think wild dumping is happening here. And I don't see any prospect of that changing.

 

[Avro Arrow]

With all due respect Avro, all aspects of nuclear are rigidly regulated in the US. I've worked on the waste storage systems and dealt directly with those regs. That's why I don't think wild dumping is happening here. And I don't see any prospect of that changing.

With all due respect Arbie, I have a hard time believing that any country has more rigorous nuclear regulations than Japan because, you know, they're the only country that has ever been on the receiving end of a nuclear attack. Also, nuclear regulations in all NATO countries are extremely stringent, not just the USA but I'm still not very comfortable living within 200km of a large CANDU reactor station here in Canada.

The Japanese are fanatical about doing things right the first time which is why Toyota wrested the title of "World's Largest Automaker" from GM over a decade ago and has never looked back. This shows a trend of Japan NOT finding new ways to screw up royally. This isn't to knock on the USA, it's just to show that Japan is far more fanatical about this than any country and there's a reason that I'm using Japan as a model.

Despite their more educated populace, despite their fanatical dedication to order and logic, despite their razor-sharp precision planning, Japan had a nuclear disaster, one that people also thought was impossible.

If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere, including the USA. It's not a knock on the USA or you personally because you know that I have a lot of respect for you. If it were just you working there, I'd actually feel pretty comfortable with your statement, but it's not just you there and sooner or later some fool is going to get hired for whatever reason.

Let's be honest here, we're a couple of oldies. We've been around long enough to know that humans ALWAYS find a way to screw things up, even when the most rigourous standards are enforced. Saying that a nuclear disaster can't happen is perhaps one of the most dangerous assertions that one can make.

"The first step towards a major catastrophe is denying that it could happen."
- Me, Today

Maybe I should copyright that, eh?

 

[Xallisto]

Carbon free nuclear power facilities? Are these guys serious? So, the tones of nuclear waste they produce is so much better than burned fossil fuel? Bitcoin should get a big bump on this news.

Err, yes.

Nuclear waste can be buried and forgotten about, greenhouse gasses can't.

 

[yannus]

It doesn't generate hot water. It sits and decays.

Just a quick search....http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2019/ph241/clark1/ "Furthermore, a study of 128 power plants lining the Mississippi River Watershed showed that thermal pollution is extensive enough to significantly impair the energy efficiency of downstream plants, since downstream plants indirectly use warmed effluent upstream water for their own cooling processes."

 

[Arbie]

Just a quick search....http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2019/ph241/clark1/ "Furthermore, a study of 128 power plants lining the Mississippi River Watershed showed that thermal pollution is extensive enough to significantly impair the energy efficiency of downstream plants, since downstream plants indirectly use warmed effluent upstream water for their own cooling processes."

That doesn't relate to waste storage - It's about operating plants dissipating excess heat in the rivers.

An assembly of used fuel rods from our largest domestic reactors only throws off the heat of a lawnmower running. And that continually decays. Of course that adds up, but it can be spread out. Lots to consider. I'm not an environmental scientist but from what I do know figure that heat from nuclear waste is extremely unlikely to be significant..

 

[StrikerRocket]

This is why every time some politician even inferred that a public utility should be privatised in Canada, they found themselves out of government in short order. Our water and energy utilities are government-owned and operated and we'd have it no other way. The only possible exception to this is Alberta and the rest of Canada doesn't know what they're thinking half the time but I don't think that even they have privatised their utilities.

In fact, in 2005, the French people, as well as others in the EU, voted "NO" in a referendum that sought approval for the so-called "European Constitution" that allowed this kind of scam, among other things. And the EU eggheads and French politicians chose to give the people the middle finger and go on anyway, just changing the name of the said treaty! This is something a LOT of people in europe and in France still resent, and for good reason! This was simply a huge treason of democracy that has undermined trust in the institutions and politicians to a level never seen before.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Err, yes.

Nuclear waste can be buried and forgotten about, greenhouse gasses can't.

Well, yes and no. I agree that at this point in time, nuclear is far better than burning anything, regardless of whether it's coal, oil, gas or biomass (aka peat or wood). However, how the waste is handled is completely dependent on who handles it.

If the storage of the spent bundles is handled by a government agency that is very strict about proper procedures and materials, then it would probably be ok. This is because a government agency would be motivated to make sure that their method of storage is 100% safe. That agency would have nothing to gain from cutting corners because they're not driven by profit.

However, if a government is lazy and contracts a private corporation to do it, I can guarantee you that they'll cut corners to increase their margins because profit is their primary concern, not safety. This is the scary part of the equation because I'm sure that governments like this exist (the USA is a pretty good case-in-point). You don't really think that some psychopathic CEO cares if something they make starts to leak 200 years down the road instead of 500 as promised, do you?

What the US corporate media doesn't cover much (if at all), is the fact that this has already happened in Washington State:

Hanford Site - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It's kinda worrying, eh?