The U.S. government is shelling out a whopping $2.7 billion to three companies in an effort to strengthen domestic uranium enrichment, amid surging electricity demand from AI data centers.

The Department of Energy announced on Monday that it will award $900 million each to American Centrifuge Operating and Orano Federal Services, as well as General Matter, a nuclear startup backed by billionaire investor Peter Thiel.

The funding will be distributed through task orders over the next 10 years, under what the department described as a “strict milestone approach.”

  • iopq@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    It’s not going to support 100% renewable usage. It is not built to transfer solar power from Nevada to Minnesota

    Everything works better when you have baseline nuclear power, transmission losses decrease, storage costs decrease, coal and gas get phased out. Remember that batteries need to be replaced often and they are very much not green. Nuclear plants operate on the scale of decades before getting replaced.

    Those are the reasons I like nuclear.

    • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.wtf
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      21 hours ago

      It is not built to transfer solar power from Nevada to Minnesota

      This exists and is longer than that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Madeira_HVDC_system

      Everything works better when you have baseline nuclear power

      Nope. Baseline isn’t helpful when you’re dealing with dispatchable generation, I already mentioned this.

      Remember that batteries need to be replaced often and they are very much not green.

      Nope. I already mentioned that silicon ion is capable of thousands of charge cycles.

      they are very much not green.

      Nope. Not when you’re comparing it to the amount of concrete in a nuclear plant.

      Like every other pro-nuclear person it’s all about feels with you. I’ve given you plenty of evidence, which you’ve rejected much like a cultist would do. I see no point continuing to discuss this with someone who has made an emotional decision to support nuclear in the face of all the evidence.

      • iopq@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        That’s in Brazil, though? What do you mean it exists. High speed rail exists in China, I’ve been promised it since early 2000s in California and yet…

        What do you mean by dispatchable generation?

        Thousands of charge cycles means a few years? 2000 days is just 6 years