Atomic battery for data center
Every year our gadgets are getting smaller, lighter, more economical. This is an obvious, irreversible trend. When buying their ultra-thin iBook in the Applestore, few of us think that mega-data centers are behind this and similar creatures like it. Often they are ugly in design, devouring a myriad of energy infrastructural nodes, such monsters that provide our everyday comfort. Directly or indirectly, the reduction of our gadgets causes an increase in data centers. Thanks to the ubiquitous appearance of high-speed Internet, tablet developers and smartphones manage to transfer an increasing part of their physical resources from portable devices to remote data centers. Modern data centers, unlike their earlier versions, which are located in small outbuildings at scientific and business institutions, are more like steel rolling factories, both in size and in resources consumed, and sometimes in terms of protection mode they are not inferior to military bases. All of the above factors and advanced development scientists in the field of creating portable nuclear reactors suggest the idea, but what if ...
As the saying goes: "Small children are small problems, big children are big problems." This also applies to data center power consumption. As the statistics show, the larger the data center, the more its PUE is close to unity, because the larger the scale of the data center, the more expedient is there investment to increase its energy efficiency. While the PUE ratio for small data centers can exceed 4.0, for large data centers it often does not exceed the value of 2.0. But, even having such statistics on hand, the scale of data centers, say, from Google or Facebook, leaves no chance to the energy networks of the regions where they are built.
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While most of the telecommunications giants carefully hide their internal information, the brainchild of Zuckerberg shares it with everyone, and here are excerpts from it.
According to data for 2013, 787,000 megawatts of electricity was spent on the operation of all data centers from Facebook. Given the total number of servers of the corporation, experts generally agree on the figure of 200,000, the instantaneous energy consumption of a single server is on average about 0.45 kilowatt. And do not forget that this data is relevant for data centers with an average phenomenal PUE ratio of 1.09!
The numbers are truly impressive. For example, the data centers located in Princeville and Forest City, consume more energy than their satellite cities with a population of about 10 thousand people. This state of affairs is a challenge for all existing infrastructure, the power grid, of course, is no exception. What to do? One of the answers to this question may be a portable nuclear reactor developed by Dr. Ottis Pete Peterson, working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA).
Developed back in 2008, the mini-nuclear power plant is impressive in its characteristics. According to the stated data, Hyperion is a reactor with a capacity of about 25 MW in an underground layout capable of providing electricity to 20,000 private houses. This is a modular reactor, and as needs grow it is quite possible to connect additional modules at a selected site. The reactor is entirely automated and does not require staff maintenance. The only thing that is assigned to a person is monitoring. According to the project, the unit is set up so that it can immediately stop when there are significant deviations from normal operation.
The service life of the reactor is from 5 to 10 years without overload, after which it will be sent for refueling with a new portion of nuclear fuel to the plant. Uranium hydride fuel is used in the reactor, with uranium enrichment selected less than 20%. The price of such a product varies from 25 to 30 million dollars.
According to the calculations of the designers, the price of one kilowatt of the produced mini-NPP will not exceed 10 US cents, which in turn is even cheaper than the average cost in the USA. Also, the asset of such a solution can be recorded the absence of additional costs for the modernization of the entire power grid of the territory, the need for which naturally arises during the construction of such an active energy consumer as a data center.
Analyzing the possibility of using portable nuclear power plants in terms of data centers, do not forget about the technical conditions faced by data centers.
Obvious advantages of this solution are 100% controllability of the energy source. The risks of breaking the high-voltage line somewhere hundreds of kilometers, of course, are excluded, since the entire infrastructure is located within the boundaries of one site. Security from electrical overloads by joint trunk users is also an obvious plus. It also becomes possible to place huge data centers in remote areas of the outermost server with the best climatic conditions for its more efficient operation (provided that the problem is resolved with communication channels).
Problems can arise with the specifics of the functioning of a nuclear reactor, the range of changes in the loads on it can be very limited and rather inert, which in the conditions of everyday bursts of activity in the data center can be a problem. Also, do not forget about the duplication of the energy source, in which the quality of another reactor is a rather dubious thing because of the lack of flexibility of the source. Security issues are becoming even more acute. Any nuclear reactor can become the target of terrorists, which simply obliges the company operating it to take a very responsible attitude to the safety of the facility, and this, of course, is an additional expense. Also, the national legislation of a number of countries, which simply prohibits the deployment of nuclear technologies on its territory, can become the way of the spread of this kind of technology.
The economy of the decision to use a portable nuclear power plant is quite logical, but how much will it be environmentally friendly? Will there be a social protest “buried behind the neighboring NPP sports ground”?
As can be seen from the above materials, kindly provided by Facebook employees, you can analyze the structure of electricity consumed by their data centers. Although it is rather arbitrary, it gives the big picture.
As can be seen, in the last two years alone, the part in the consumption of atomic energy by the server infrastructure has almost doubled, while the part of the recoverable energy has almost halved. There is nothing surprising here, because only an atom can be guaranteed to feed such a giant. What can I say, but Facebook data centers are far from being the largest representatives of their own kind (not a single data center among the top 10 largest ones).
At a time when the "green" energy is simply not able to satisfy the growing needs of consumers, nuclear energy comes to the rescue, and there is no way for the windmills. If we compare traditional power stations on hydrocarbons, then questions on environmental friendliness arise for them more than for a peaceful atom. All this is wonderfully understood and ready to put up with it, but, as is often the case, if this reactor is “not on the next street”.
No matter how much the above stated sounds defiant, for someone, maybe even wildly, progress cannot be stopped. IT business is gaining weight with each passing year. The ease and low cost of the solutions that we are offered at every step of the company carries with it an invisible burden of complex questions and choices. Where progress in the pursuit of the functionality and cheapness of our devices will lead us - only the future will show.
TPP-3 - a transportable nuclear power plant transported on four self-propelled tracked chassis, created on the basis of a heavy tank T-10
Energy Eaters
As the saying goes: "Small children are small problems, big children are big problems." This also applies to data center power consumption. As the statistics show, the larger the data center, the more its PUE is close to unity, because the larger the scale of the data center, the more expedient is there investment to increase its energy efficiency. While the PUE ratio for small data centers can exceed 4.0, for large data centers it often does not exceed the value of 2.0. But, even having such statistics on hand, the scale of data centers, say, from Google or Facebook, leaves no chance to the energy networks of the regions where they are built.
')
While most of the telecommunications giants carefully hide their internal information, the brainchild of Zuckerberg shares it with everyone, and here are excerpts from it.
According to data for 2013, 787,000 megawatts of electricity was spent on the operation of all data centers from Facebook. Given the total number of servers of the corporation, experts generally agree on the figure of 200,000, the instantaneous energy consumption of a single server is on average about 0.45 kilowatt. And do not forget that this data is relevant for data centers with an average phenomenal PUE ratio of 1.09!
The numbers are truly impressive. For example, the data centers located in Princeville and Forest City, consume more energy than their satellite cities with a population of about 10 thousand people. This state of affairs is a challenge for all existing infrastructure, the power grid, of course, is no exception. What to do? One of the answers to this question may be a portable nuclear reactor developed by Dr. Ottis Pete Peterson, working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA).
Hyperion NPP - Portable Nuclear Power Plant
Developed back in 2008, the mini-nuclear power plant is impressive in its characteristics. According to the stated data, Hyperion is a reactor with a capacity of about 25 MW in an underground layout capable of providing electricity to 20,000 private houses. This is a modular reactor, and as needs grow it is quite possible to connect additional modules at a selected site. The reactor is entirely automated and does not require staff maintenance. The only thing that is assigned to a person is monitoring. According to the project, the unit is set up so that it can immediately stop when there are significant deviations from normal operation.
The service life of the reactor is from 5 to 10 years without overload, after which it will be sent for refueling with a new portion of nuclear fuel to the plant. Uranium hydride fuel is used in the reactor, with uranium enrichment selected less than 20%. The price of such a product varies from 25 to 30 million dollars.
According to the calculations of the designers, the price of one kilowatt of the produced mini-NPP will not exceed 10 US cents, which in turn is even cheaper than the average cost in the USA. Also, the asset of such a solution can be recorded the absence of additional costs for the modernization of the entire power grid of the territory, the need for which naturally arises during the construction of such an active energy consumer as a data center.
The specifics of the functioning of data centers
Analyzing the possibility of using portable nuclear power plants in terms of data centers, do not forget about the technical conditions faced by data centers.
Obvious advantages of this solution are 100% controllability of the energy source. The risks of breaking the high-voltage line somewhere hundreds of kilometers, of course, are excluded, since the entire infrastructure is located within the boundaries of one site. Security from electrical overloads by joint trunk users is also an obvious plus. It also becomes possible to place huge data centers in remote areas of the outermost server with the best climatic conditions for its more efficient operation (provided that the problem is resolved with communication channels).
Problems can arise with the specifics of the functioning of a nuclear reactor, the range of changes in the loads on it can be very limited and rather inert, which in the conditions of everyday bursts of activity in the data center can be a problem. Also, do not forget about the duplication of the energy source, in which the quality of another reactor is a rather dubious thing because of the lack of flexibility of the source. Security issues are becoming even more acute. Any nuclear reactor can become the target of terrorists, which simply obliges the company operating it to take a very responsible attitude to the safety of the facility, and this, of course, is an additional expense. Also, the national legislation of a number of countries, which simply prohibits the deployment of nuclear technologies on its territory, can become the way of the spread of this kind of technology.
Environmental friendliness
The economy of the decision to use a portable nuclear power plant is quite logical, but how much will it be environmentally friendly? Will there be a social protest “buried behind the neighboring NPP sports ground”?
As can be seen from the above materials, kindly provided by Facebook employees, you can analyze the structure of electricity consumed by their data centers. Although it is rather arbitrary, it gives the big picture.
As can be seen, in the last two years alone, the part in the consumption of atomic energy by the server infrastructure has almost doubled, while the part of the recoverable energy has almost halved. There is nothing surprising here, because only an atom can be guaranteed to feed such a giant. What can I say, but Facebook data centers are far from being the largest representatives of their own kind (not a single data center among the top 10 largest ones).
At a time when the "green" energy is simply not able to satisfy the growing needs of consumers, nuclear energy comes to the rescue, and there is no way for the windmills. If we compare traditional power stations on hydrocarbons, then questions on environmental friendliness arise for them more than for a peaceful atom. All this is wonderfully understood and ready to put up with it, but, as is often the case, if this reactor is “not on the next street”.
Total
No matter how much the above stated sounds defiant, for someone, maybe even wildly, progress cannot be stopped. IT business is gaining weight with each passing year. The ease and low cost of the solutions that we are offered at every step of the company carries with it an invisible burden of complex questions and choices. Where progress in the pursuit of the functionality and cheapness of our devices will lead us - only the future will show.
PS Soviet scientists as always ahead of the rest
TPP-3 - a transportable nuclear power plant transported on four self-propelled tracked chassis, created on the basis of a heavy tank T-10
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/240453/
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