Choose your evil poll

Choose your evil - Which one to have in the city you live in
  • Flock Camera systems
  • Nuclear Power Plant
  • AI Data Center
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If you took more than 1 minute deciding, post how long it took

Needs a none of the above option.

Is there something wrong with nuclear power?

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Question on the nuclear power plants? How long is the uranium used in them? What do they do with it after it is spent? How dangerous is it after use and for how long? I always think of 3 mile island when nuclear power plants come up.

Not sure why Nuclear Power Plants nor Data Centers need to be close to any towns.

Flock Cameras in urban areas with relatively high crime should welcome them but I am being NIMBY with all of my responses.

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To be honest just my experience. A data center was built in the town I work in 12 or so years ago. The county approved it and it was built behind a fence like a top secret military complex before it was common knowledge. Truth be known no one even knows it is there really. My personal opinion AI makes people lazy and dumb. The automatic AI response I see on Google isn’t always factual. You can reword a search and get completely different responses. I am not fond of the data centers.

The town I work in has four flock cameras. Two of them are in the same Lowe’s parking lot. Help me make sense of that. Public view pictures I am ok with it the abuse we are seeing come to light I have issues with. That and rumors of the collecting more than pictures.

Nuclear power just doesn’t make sense to me. The danger to reward ratio doesn’t match to me.

I spent a week in a bed and breakfast in Los Alamos that was the home of a retired physicist at the lab. The common area was his living room. I spent the evenings during the week listing to all his stories. I was quizzing him about the waste. He told me they have the technology to reuse spent rods. He told me “in 50 years the stuff they are putting in yuca mountain will be like gold”. Turns out my BIL’s (sisters husband) dad helped develop the process at INL back in the late 90s.

As far as safety concerns go the new reactors are much different than the old ones. They don’t require pumps to cool the reactor and the fuel is more stable. When we tore down the TRIGA MK1 reactor I worked with one of the physicists that helped develop the new mini modular reactors. She is brilliant. Pretty fascinating stuff.

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I’m just about to get on a plane to head to a National Lab in CA to kickoff a new nuclear D&D project… so I may be a little biased. :winking_face_with_tongue:

They are talking about putting a mini here( Fingers crossed they don’t) last I heard they are still in research and development ( guess us hillbillies are test subjects). I am sure they can improve the way things are done but from what I have seen it is many years before spent fuel rods are remotely safe. Some things I feel are better left alone.

I honestly would question how safe some claims are. ( Not putting these people down). Look at how many meds was proven safe then … Well maybe not.

NuScale is a great stock to buy right now. They make packaged nuclear plants to run GE steam turbines for AI power supplies. It’s cheap now. It will be a money maker in the near future.

I don’t like them either, as a matter of fact. TVA Sequoyah nuke plant is 5 miles as the crow flies. There is an evacuation sign at the end of my road. Leave this way.:laughing:

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While I understand your concerns I don’t share them. The micro reactor technology is based on the TRIGA reactor first developed in 1958… so while they are a newer version, the technology has been around for quite a while. There are TRIGA reactors operating all over the country and in 23 countries world wide. Several Universities use them for medical research. The Navy trains their reactor operators on a TRIGA reactor in Bethesda Maryland. TRIGA stands for Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics. The first TRIGA reactor was developed by General Atomics in LaJolla Ca hence the GA at the end. TRIGA reactors use a uranium-zirconium-hydride fuel which is known for safety and a negative temperature coefficient, which means it self regulates and cant melt down.

Again I understand and respect your concern and don’t blame you for being leery of “new” tech. I am personally hoping our area will replace its non coal and hydro power with a micro plant. They were one of the first on the list but bad pub made them reconsider.

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I certainly wasn’t trying to discredit your opinion. I certainly respect yours as well . Like I said I feel some things the reward isn’t worth the gain.

I it is interesting that you mentioned the Navy. I had a uncle that developed a very serious thyroid issue. Doctors told him that it could have only been caused by high levels of radiation exposure. In his case it was believed to have been the time he spent on a navel submarine.

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I didn’t feel that way at all, I just thought you might find it interesting.

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I don’t know much about conditions in submarines. Do they track exposure for crew members? I would think they would but have no idea?

We designed dry dock material highways for the two of the dry docks at Pearl Harbor. They use them to stock the sub for deployment. It is basically just a forklift bridge and elevator. It was fun to see them in service but I didnt get to go inside the sub.

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Absolutely I am very interested . Especially now that there may be one in our back yard.

I will stand firm on the fact I don’t believe it is worth the risk of messing around with enrichment uranium.

One of my brothers was in college with a fella that travels or did travel changing out fuel cells in reactors. Said a common question he gets asked is if he has ever caught himself glowing… Not funny in my opinion.

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Good information Erik.

Thanks for sharing.

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Elon and SpaceX have a plan. For a small fee they’ll take that waste off your hands,…and off your planet.

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Growing up, we had a nuclear reactor in the canyon behind McDonalds.

I grew up in a weird place and some (few) might say that I turned out just fine.

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TA-2!! I recognize that place!

Was Clementine still operational when you were in High school? :winking_face_with_tongue::joy:

no, I guess it was before my time. I graduated HS in 1981. In the 70s, LANL had ‘family days’. We got to see a lot of cool stuff.

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