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A comment on Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigate energy efficiency. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigat... by naravara on Wednesday June 06, 2018 @03:03PM (#17250041)
>Meh. The biggest data center (ChinaTel's Inner Mongolia Information Park) consumes about 150MWe, assuming all of it becomes waste heat it's basically nothing: a nuclear reactor (each plant has 2~8) releases 2Wt for each We it produces, and they're usually sized between 800 and 1300MWe.

Seems a shame to let all that heat go to waste. Surely we put that waste heat to use and a distillery or desalinization plant or something.

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Re:Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigat... by teachrdan on Wednesday June 06, 2018 @04:04PM (#17250590)
Desalination isn't a bad idea, but it does produce large quantities of waste brine, among other things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination#Environmental
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Re:Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigat... by naravara on Thursday June 07, 2018 @11:56AM (#17257003)
>but it does produce large quantities of waste brine, among other things

So combination data center, desalinization plant, and pickle factory then?

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Re:Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigat... by grkvlt on Thursday June 07, 2018 @06:37AM (#17254692)
To let all that radioactive heat go to waste? Although maybe that's just the primary coolant circuit - is the water they use from rivers/the ocean made radioactive, or just heated?
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Re:Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea to investigat... by naravara on Thursday June 07, 2018 @11:54AM (#17256975)
I was thinking more from data centers. You could probably do it with nuclear too.

This gif: https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/images/2015/08/np... shows how typical nuclear reactors work. They're functionally just steam turbines, the nuclear power is just capable of heating a whole lot of water.

The waste heat, though, doesn't come in contact with the radioactive parts. That's what's happened on the bottom with the condenser.

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