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Today's Topics:
1. Re: An odd change in spam email (David)
2. Re: An odd change in spam email ([email protected])
3. Re: An odd change in spam email (David)
4. Big Tech Backs Small Nuclear (Stephen Loosley)
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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2024 13:43:17 +1100
From: David <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [LINK] An odd change in spam email
Message-ID: <4613739.LvFx2qVVIh@ulysses>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
On Wednesday, 11 December 2024 8:10:49 AM AEDT Tom Worthington wrote:
> Thunderbird is working fine for me. I simply stopped installing upgrades. ;-)
I've heard others with the same solution (:-)!
I counted *eight* Thubderbird version updates in the 141 days between 17th July
and 8th December: from version 115.12.2 to 128.5.0. That's about one update
every 18 days, and major releases has gone from version 115 to version 128!!
All were via normal O/S updates.
_DavidL_
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2024 14:18:02 +1100
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [LINK] An odd change in spam email
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
On 11/12/24 13:43, David wrote:
> On Wednesday, 11 December 2024 8:10:49 AM AEDT Tom Worthington wrote:
>> Thunderbird is working fine for me. I simply stopped installing upgrades. ;-)
> I've heard others with the same solution (:-)!
>
> I counted *eight* Thubderbird version updates in the 141 days between 17th
> July and 8th December: from version 115.12.2 to 128.5.0. That's about one
> update every 18 days, and major releases has gone from version 115 to version
> 128!! All were via normal O/S updates.
They skipped from 102 to 115 to 128 due to large UI changes. I think
those have lead to extra minor releases to stabilize it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Thunderbird#Releases
I've found it to be as stable as ever.
Hamish
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2024 15:15:45 +1100
From: David <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [LINK] An odd change in spam email
Message-ID: <3644970.LM0AJKV5NW@ulysses>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
On Wednesday, 11 December 2024 2:18:02 PM AEDT [email protected] wrote:
> They skipped from 102 to 115 to 128 due to large UI changes. I think
> those have lead to extra minor releases to stabilize it.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Thunderbird#Releases
>
> I've found it to be as stable as ever.
Yes, it's pretty stable in operation. However one or more recent updates have
overwritten some of my non-default configuration changes with default values,
especially fonts, which seem to be a black art in T'bird anyway. The
network-encryption port numbers were also changed (to SSL/TLS) without changing
the name of the protocol.
I'd like to think Mozilla's software development and pre-release testing was
more disciplined and therefore trustworthy.
In any case, I've found I prefer the current version of KDE's Kmail!
_David L._
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2024 11:59:42 +0000
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] Big Tech Backs Small Nuclear
Message-ID:
<sy5p282mb44098414470609fcdc378141c2...@sy5p282mb4409.ausp282.prod.outlook.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
Please Note: This email did not come from ANU, Be careful of any request to buy
gift cards or other items for senders outside of ANU. Learn why this is
important.
https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/types-of-scams/email-scams#toc-warning-signs-it-might-be-a-scam
Big Tech Backs Small Nuclear
Google and Amazon invest in small modular reactors to power data centers
By Emily Waltz, the power and energy editor at IEEE Spectrum.
19 hours ago: https://spectrum.ieee.org/nuclear-powered-data-center
Google and Amazon have invested in nuclear reactors that will use
tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel: golf ball-size graphite spheres
packed with uranium, carbon, and oxygen.
When Meta announced last week that it?s looking for a nuclear energy developer
to power its future AI operations, it joined a growing cadre of tech companies
all suddenly repeating the same refrain: We need more power?preferably
carbon-free?and lots of it.
Electricity demand in the United States is expected to grow more than 15
percent over the next five years after remaining flat for the last two decades,
according to a recent report from power sector consulting firm Grid Strategies.
Most of the growth will be driven by the needs of data centers and their
operators, who are scrambling to secure large amounts of reliable power while
keeping their carbon neutral goals.
Nuclear energy fits that bill, and over the last few months, Amazon, Google,
and Microsoft have all announced ambitious deals to acquire it for their
operations.
Some of the plans aim to secure energy in the near term from existing power
plants. Others focus on the long game and include investments in
next-generation nuclear energy and small modular reactors (SMRs) that don?t yet
exist on a commercial scale.
?Data centers have grown in size and AI is dramatically changing the future
[energy] forecast,? says Dan Stout, founder of Advanced Nuclear Advisors in
Chattanooga, Tenn.
?In the 2030s, the grid will have less coal and there will be some constraints
on gas. So nuclear energy?s power density and carbon-free high reliability is
attractive, and tech companies are starting to take action on new nuclear
deployments,? he says.
Big Tech Turns Its Attention to Nuclear Power
Amazon kicked off the bevy of public announcements in March when it bought a
data center adjacent to a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The purchase
came with 300 megawatts of behind-the-meter electricity. After closing the
deal, Amazon requested another 180 MW. The request caused a dustup over energy
fairness, and in November regulators rejected it, leaving Amazon looking for
other options. Tech companies are watching the precedent-setting situation
closely.
Meanwhile, Microsoft was inking an agreement with Constellation Energy to
restart a shuttered nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island?the site of the worst
nuclear disaster in U.S. history. The plan, announced in September, calls for
the reactor to supply 835 MW to grid operator PJM, and for Microsoft to buy
enough of that power to match the electricity consumed by its data centers in
the PJM Interconnection.
Then in October, just two days apart, Google and Amazon both announced
investments in startups developing SMRs. The smaller size and modular design of
SMRs could make building them faster, cheaper and more predictable than
conventional nuclear reactors. They also come with enhanced safety features,
and could be built closer to transmission lines.
SMRs are still at least five years from commercial operation in the United
States. A year ago the first planned SMR in the United States was cancelled due
to rising costs and a lack of customers.
(China is building an SMR called the Linglong One on the island of Hainan,
which is scheduled to be operational in 2026.)
To move things along, Amazon led a US $500 million financing round to support
X-energy in Rockville, Md., which is developing a gas-cooled SMR.
The financing will help X-energy finish its reactor design and build a nuclear
fuel fabrication facility. The plan is to build multiple SMRs producing at
least 5 GW total by 2039. Each reactor will provide 80 MW of electricity.
Google, for its part, is backing Kairos Power with a 500 MW development
agreement. The Alameda, Calif.-based company is developing a molten fluoride
salt-cooled SMR and has received construction permits from the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission to build two demonstration facilities, both in Oak Ridge,
Tenn. The company says the facilities will be operational by 2030.
TRISO Fuel Promises to Shrink Reactors
The reactors that both Kairos and X-energy are developing run on tri-structural
isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel. It?s made of uranium, carbon, and oxygen
encapsulated in graphite kernels the size of a poppy seed. The kernels get
loaded into golf ball-size spheres called pebbles that are also made of
graphite. Each pebble contains thousands of fuel kernels.
The structure of the pebble encapsulation enables the fuel to withstand very
high temperatures, so even in worst-case accidents, the pebbles won?t melt.
The coatings ?essentially provide the key safety functions that the large
containment concrete structure is providing for conventional reactor
technologies,? says Mike Laufer, co-founder of Kairos.
If regulators approve, the built-in containment feature could shrink the
footprint of nuclear plants by reducing the size of containment structures.
The U.S. Department of Energy has been developing and extensively testing TRISO
fuel over the last two decades.
Kairos will use TRISO fuel in its high-temperature, low-pressure, fluoride
salt-cooled reactor. In this design, fuel pebbles in the reactor core undergo
fission, generating heat that transfers to the surrounding molten salt. Heat
exchangers transfer the heat to boil water and generate steam, which drives a
turbine and generates electricity. The molten salt acts as an additional safety
barrier, chemically absorbing any fission products that escape the pebbles,
Laufer says. Kairos? commercial reactors will each generate about 75 MW of
electricity, Laufer says.
X-energy plans to use TRISO fuel is its high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. In
this design, helium gas runs through the reactor core. As the fuel pebbles
undergo fission, the gas extracts the heat, which is used to boil water and
generates steam to drive a turbine. Each fuel pebble will constantly shuffle
through the reactor, passing through about six times. ?The reactor is a lot
like a gumball machine,? says Benjamin Reinke, vice president of global
business development at X-energy. A mechanical corkscrew drives a pebble in an
auger out of the system., and the pebble is checked to see if it?s fully burned
up. If not, it goes back to into the top of the reactor, he says.
X-energy is working on getting a license to produce TRISO fuel on a commercial
scale at a facility it plans to build in Oak Ridge. The company?s first
customer, a Dow petrochemical plant in Seadrift, Tex., plans to replace its gas
boilers with X-energy?s SMRs, which will create steam and electricity for the
plant and possibly for the grid. X-energy?s deal with Amazon also supports a
four-unit, 320-MW project with regional utility Energy Northwest in Richland,
Wash.
Tech companies for the last decade have been investing in wind and solar energy
too, but the power from these sources is intermittent, and may not be enough to
meet the needs of power-guzzling AI.
The arrangements between big tech and small nuclear signal the beginning of a
trend, says Stout. Meta?s announcement last week that it?s putting out a
request for proposals for up to 4 gigawatts of nuclear power may be the most
recent addition to that trend, but it?s probably not the last. Says Stout: ?I
expect there?s going to be more.?
This article was updated on 10 December 2024 to clarify the agreement between
Google and Kairos Power.
--
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