At lunch today I finished reading "On the Beach". It is a story all about the vibes, with hardly any action. Just a group of people whiling away their time as they wait to die from radioactive fallout.

While that sounds very bleak, I think there is a more positive reading in the ways they found meaning in the remainder of their lives without leaning on notions of legacy. Peter and Mary tend to their garden even though they won't benefit from their plantings, because gardening is a meaningful activity in itself, whether there is anyone around to appreciate it or not.

https://search.worldcat.org/title/1109830745

#reading #books #radioactivefallout #beachreads

Plan would power new #Microsoft #AI #DataCenter with electricity from Pa.'s #ThreeMileIsland #nuclear reactor

Constellation Energy is prepared to invest $1.6 billion to bring the plant's surviving reactor from the 1979 meltdown back online.

By Michael Tanenbaum, PhillyVoice Staff
September 20, 2024

Excerpt: "Tech companies favor nuclear power for AI

"In the race to develop artificial intelligence applications, tech companies are scrambling to build data centers, which require enormous amounts of electricity to operate. Such facilities are forecast to make up a growing share of the nation's electricity use in the years to come, prompting companies to look at tapping into existing infrastructure to help meet their needs.

"#NuclearPower is being touted as a cost-effective solution for these data centers that also limits reliance on carbon-producing power sources. Building and directly connecting data centers to nuclear plants is known as co-location, a strategy that industry leaders favor because it's cheaper and faster to do. Proponents also claim it reduces stress on the transmission grids.

[...]

"When Constellation signaled interest in restarting Three Mile Island in July [2024], doubts surfaced about the technical feasibility of the project. Not only would it be the first of its kind, but it will have to be accomplished next to another reactor whose clean-up and decommissioning is expected to continue through 2078.

"The site also remains politically contentious due to the lasting memory of the 1979 accident, which displaced surrounding communities and left a legacy of fear over whether the #radiation released contributed to increased #cancer rates in the vicinity. About 2 million people were exposed to #RadioactiveFallout as a result of the meltdown.

"Public health researchers from Temple, Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh published a report last year finding that long-term studies into the impact of the meltdown were limited by research flaws."

Read more:
https://www.phillyvoice.com/ai-three-mile-island-microsoft-constellation-nuclear-reactor-data-centers/

#WaterIsLife #NuclearPowerPlants
#NoNukes #NoNukesForAI #BigTech #NuclearWaste #RethinkNotRestart #NuclearIsNotCarbonFree #Pennsylvania #CancerRates

Russia is seeking to militarily target three Ukrainian nuclear power plants, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the United Nations. Putin really needs to google what directions the wind blows over Ukraine. Spoiler: the wind blows towards Russia, douchebag.

#sketch #comedy #SketchComedy #satire #funny #joke #russia #ukraine #NuclearPower #NuclearPlant #military #VolodymyrZelenskyy #radiation #fallout #nuclear #NuclearFallout #radioactive #RadioactiveFallout #PrevailingWinds #winds

As you wrap your head around particles from wildfires creating risk 1000s of km away, and even on the other side of the world, use this moment to understand how radioactive fallout particles from nuclear weapon "tests" spread radioactive particles all around the world.

They have been found on every continent, at the poles, in the Mariana Trench, even in #Hiroshima & #Nagasaki.

This is the fallout cloud from the #Bravo test in the Marshall Islands in 1954, taken 15 minutes after detonation. H-bomb tests brought these particulates high into the upper atmosphere where they circled the Earth before "falling out" all across the globe. Many remain dangerous for 100s or 1000s of years.

#nuclear #NuclearTesting #GlobalHibakusha #RadioactiveFallout @histodons #histodons @sts #ColdWar #environment