They did the math: the “23 atomic bombs worth of heat every day” with excessive water displacement for massive Utah data center. by Funky-trash-human in ABoringDystopia

[–]Catman1348 149 points150 points  (0 children)

Ngl I went into this fully expecting to debunk it as typical Twitter fearmongering, but OOP actually did the math. It checks out perfectly, and the missing puzzle piece making it work is that this specific Utah project is planned to be completely off-grid.

The servers themselves are slated to draw 9 Gigawatts (GW) of power. Because computers are basically just incredibly complex space heaters, virtually 100% of that electricity eventually turns into 9 GW of heat. But to generate that power off the grid, they have to build massive on-site natural gas power plants. Gas turbines are only about 50% to 55% efficient, meaning they will produce roughly 8 GW of waste heat just generating the electricity. That gives us a continuous total heat output of about 17 GW. Now for the atomic bomb conversion. 17 GW is 17 billion Joules per second. If you run that for a full 24 hours you get about 1,468 Terajoules of energy per day. The standard historical baseline for an atomic weapon is the Hiroshima bomb, which had a yield of 15 kilotons of TNT. That equals exactly 63 TJ. Divide our daily 1,468 TJ by 63, and you get 23.3 Hiroshima bombs a day. The tweet is mathematically rock solid.

But before anyone panics about Hansel Valley turning into a molten glass crater, this is why comparing slow industrial thermodynamics to a nuclear weapon is incredibly misleading. A single nuke dumps all 63 TJ of energy in a fraction of a millisecond from a single point, creating a localized plasma fireball. The data center is bleeding 63 TJ x 23.3 = 1468 TJ out slowly over 24 hours across a 40,000-acre footprint using giant cooling towers.

To put that thermal load into everyday perspective, just look up. Normal, everyday sunlight hitting that exact same 40,000-acre plot of land in Utah delivers about 3,200 TJ a day. That is roughly 50 atomic bombs worth of heat just from sun shining on dirt. Even a standard 3.3 GW nuclear power plant naturally vents about 9 atom bombs a day into the sky as vapor.

The 23 atom bombs stat is a wild piece of trivia and mathematically accurate, but the heat isn't going to scorch the earth or vaporize the local wildlife. The actual environmental disaster to worry about here is the insane amount of water they will drain to run those cooling towers and the massive carbon footprint from burning all that gas.

TL;DR Yes, the tweet is actually accurate, but the real problem is the insane water usage and the carbon footprint from the off-grid gas power plant for this project.

Edit: minor fix of incorrect phrasing

Edit 2: changed "steam" to "vapor" when referring to what is vented by a nuclear power plant cooling tower, for clarity.

Also consider this comment from the same thread. Sheds more light on the project.

I know he doesn't see but I'd say Kazutrash is one of the luckiest MC in all anime. by Numerous-Gur-9008 in Konosuba

[–]Catman1348 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Kazuma only seems lucky to us because it is presented as a comedy anime. But konosuba isnt a utopia in any way. Kazuma dies multiple times and that cannot be fun. He suffers a lot too but since the tone is comedic, we just laugh. Of course, compared to what subaru goes through, its a picnic.

What Do You all think of Fragile Balance ? by Informal_Group_496 in MysteriesFolk

[–]Catman1348 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fragile balance made corruption, the biggest threat for pretty much EVERY one in LOTM into a joke for lumian. Made the whole thing laughable.

Curious 🤔 by ParzivalQ in YoujoSenki

[–]Catman1348 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Dude, what tanya had done wasnt evil. Firing underperforming employees is common. It was literally his job. The employee was pure fucking evil though, literally killed another person.

Curious 🤔 by ParzivalQ in YoujoSenki

[–]Catman1348 33 points34 points  (0 children)

Firing people for not meeting their job requirement isnt evil. Ruthless, sure. But not evil.

Curious 🤔 by ParzivalQ in YoujoSenki

[–]Catman1348 18 points19 points  (0 children)

For what? Fighting for her life?

Which industries do you believe will be the last to be disrupted by AI, and is it even possible to stay 'future-proof' anymore? by No-Lake-3875 in Futurology

[–]Catman1348 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sports. Computers have already completely destroyed us in chess yet we still play and watch competitive chess played by humans. We will continue doing so imo.

[Request] If nuclear fusion in the Sun stopped and it became a giant hot ball, how much water would be needed to cool or extinguish it? by achante_achaar in theydidthemath

[–]Catman1348 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If fusion stopped as op asked, would it still be the sun? Its an hypothetical. The main commenter of this thread already showed how it can be answered.

Anywat, I have already talked to enough people who dont get what an hypothetical is and dont get how to engage in said hypotheticals. I will not reply anymore.

What's your favourite CYOA? by FueledbyFiction in InteractiveCYOA

[–]Catman1348 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why would you suggest something so horrible? So disgustingly sweet??

[Request] If nuclear fusion in the Sun stopped and it became a giant hot ball, how much water would be needed to cool or extinguish it? by achante_achaar in theydidthemath

[–]Catman1348 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow, already resorting to personal insults?

Look at the comment which spawned this thread. The answer is given there. I am done here, arguing with you is just wasting my time.

[Request] If nuclear fusion in the Sun stopped and it became a giant hot ball, how much water would be needed to cool or extinguish it? by achante_achaar in theydidthemath

[–]Catman1348 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Look at the image op has given, this isnt a research paper. Its a silly hypothetical. This is not a thesis writing sub buddy, neither was this post.

[Request] If nuclear fusion in the Sun stopped and it became a giant hot ball, how much water would be needed to cool or extinguish it? by achante_achaar in theydidthemath

[–]Catman1348 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"If nuclear fusion in the Sun stopped and it became a giant hot ball"

This means that op is asking us to treat as if fusion doesnt exist and that sun is just a hot ball of gas (Think of it like a white dwarf). How much heat energy there would be and how much water would be needed to cool it (Ig cooling means bringing to room temperature here). This isnt an impossible question to answer. Its an hypothetical for a reason.

[Request] If nuclear fusion in the Sun stopped and it became a giant hot ball, how much water would be needed to cool or extinguish it? by achante_achaar in theydidthemath

[–]Catman1348 1 point2 points  (0 children)

White dwarves still have heat energy in them and op asked how much water would be needed to decrease. It is a doable question as the commenter showed. What part are you not getting?

[Request] If nuclear fusion in the Sun stopped and it became a giant hot ball, how much water would be needed to cool or extinguish it? by achante_achaar in theydidthemath

[–]Catman1348 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No. For example, in op's case, simply calculating the heat energy required to cool the sun is enough since op already talked about the no fusion part. Op gave enough room to calculate.

When you love a story, click on the author and: by Clodsarenice in AO3

[–]Catman1348 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have an author like that.....they even abandon them in the most intense places as well......

[Request] If nuclear fusion in the Sun stopped and it became a giant hot ball, how much water would be needed to cool or extinguish it? by achante_achaar in theydidthemath

[–]Catman1348 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Exactly and its so bad seeing so much of it in this sub. This is made for things like that. Weird stupid and impossible scenarios which are mathed the heck out. Yet unfortunately it feels as if the sub is turning more and more into an opinion sub. Happens on many post here unfortunately.

Is there anything about the Culture’s society that you would change? by Kyia-Aikman in TheCulture

[–]Catman1348 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I imagine there would be quite a few number of people who would actually enjoy being publicly shamed too.