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Re:How cloud computing impacts the environment by Aeolun on Monday December 16, 2019 @09:25AM (#21803176)
Isn’t nuclear a fossil fuel as well? While not quite the same thing, I don’t think we can manufacture uranium (or whatever the reactor uses to run), more than once?
Re:How cloud computing impacts the environment by jerf on Monday December 16, 2019 @10:09AM (#21803507)
In the limit, energy is not a renewable resource, thanks to entropy. In that sense all energy is a "fossil fuel" left over from the Big Bang. However any Kardeshev type I civilization (located on one planet) will be satisfied with nuclear fission's power output for a time frame beyond our ability to predict into the future; that is, if we here in 2019 try to arrogantly predict that "there's a power crisis coming in 500 years!", it is very unlikely that 2519 is going to hail us as forward-thinking smart people, because the odds of something critical changing between now and then approach 100% [1]. Let alone several thousand years from now.

These predictions also generally include a healthy amount of assuming growth of energy in the future, too, not just projecting today's use indefinitely (although not necessarily predicting exponential growth either).

This also ignores what I would consider fairly good odds of non-terrestrial sources we may find on that time frame. Plus I'm still holding out hope that one of our fusion approaches will eventually pay off. (Dyson spheres are nice & all but there's still something to be said for being able to generate power in concentrated manners where you want it, rather than having to collect it at scale from an uncontrolled reactor.)

[1] For the fashionably misanthropic among us who may feel that statement may contain too much optimism, "total civilization collapse" would be such a "critical change".

Re:How cloud computing impacts the environment by Aeolun on Monday December 16, 2019 @07:14PM (#21809111)
Thanks, that (together with other comments) was actually really informative.
Re:How cloud computing impacts the environment by aratauto on Monday December 16, 2019 @10:09AM (#21803505)
"Fossil" means "remains of plants or animals", but in the context of environmental aspect of fuels the key aspect is emission of CO2. Nuclear is neither of that. On the other hand it is non-renewable like fossil fuels.

In the longer term (hundreds of years), humanity should be worried exhausting non-renewable resources, but in a shorter perspective the climate change is a bigger concern.

Re:How cloud computing impacts the environment by ImminentFate on Monday December 16, 2019 @09:38AM (#21803262)
As of 2009, estimates were that we have between 200-400 years of nuclear fuel remaining at current consumption rates.

If we can efficiently extract uranium from saltwater, that value jumps to 60,000 years.

If instead we switch all reactors over to breeder types instead of the current light-water reactors, our 200-400 year estimate then becomes more like 30,000 years

Re:How cloud computing impacts the environment by Beltiras on Monday December 16, 2019 @10:00AM (#21803435)
Replace Uranium with Thorium and you get another increase in high-energy lifespan for humans by tens of thousands.