From nuclear power plants to data centers: a new trend in the world of telecommunications

Every day the amount of information generated by a person increases. All this data needs to be stored somewhere and somehow processed, especially when it comes to digital data. Accordingly, it requires more data centers, as they say, good and different. But there are not so many suitable places for building a data center, if you need a really powerful data center.

There are a number of important conditions when choosing such a place. This is a specific climate, the presence of energy and network infrastructure, the relative proximity of settlements, etc. In many regions, where all these conditions can be met, one problem arises - the cost of renting or buying land, as well as the cost of construction. In order to avoid significant costs, developers offer a variety of options, including the creation of floating data centers (which is quite realistic and is being implemented now ). There are more unusual proposals - for example, to convert an abandoned nuclear power plant in the data center.

Such a proposal was made by ex-Google employee John Dunn, who once served as the top manager of the corporation. This person has been busy in the telecommunications sector for a long time, so crazy ideas are clearly not his strong point. He spent ten years searching for places to create new data centers Google, experience in this regard, Dunn does not hold. Why, then, did he propose such an unusual modernization?
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The fact is that the former nuclear power plant is located in a very good place. We are talking about the Vermont Yankee power station, which was used from 1972 to 2014. Three years ago, the nuclear power plant was closed, and state officials began to look for ways to use an idle facility. Initially, they wanted to convert it into a solar power station or a power station that runs on natural gas.

But after a detailed assessment of the location and characteristics of the object, John Dunn decided to invite the state authorities to create a data center at this location. The fact is that there is a large amount of water resources for cooling the equipment. In addition, a railway line with the corresponding infrastructure has been laid to the NPP. That is, in the presence and energy. It remains only to add the network infrastructure and upgrade the building itself.

For a large telecommunications company like Google, a new data center is not suitable due to the relatively small effective area of ​​the building where it is possible to place equipment for the data center. But for a medium-sized company, a hosting provider or any other organization, such a data center would be optimal.

The only thing that can not be used now is the place where the reactor is located. It also needs to be completely deactivated, which will take a lot of time. However, the free space of the former NPP allows you to begin the deployment of a data center now. According to experts, it is possible to launch a medium-sized data center in this place in just six months.

By the way, the project is not as crazy as it may seem. For a long time, the possibility of creating new data centers on the basis of decommissioned nuclear power plants is being considered by Amazon. The management of this company decided to launch a similar project in Italy. Here negotiations are underway with the owner of one of the old nuclear power plants, the company Enel. If everything works out, one of the country's largest data centers will appear in the Italian province of Montalto di Castro. The project cost is estimated at about $ 1 billion. The data center will be located approximately two hours from Rome. And this is only a pilot project that, if successful, will be scaled. Amazon plans to convert from three to five nuclear power plants in Italy, turning them into a data center.

And Russia, too

Two years ago, the state corporation Rosenergoatom announced its intention to create one of the largest data centers in Russia near the Kalinin NPP. This NPP is equipped with four VVER-1000 power reactors with a capacity of 1000 MW each. Yes, the conversion of nuclear power plants to the data center is not discussed here. But the new data center will be located directly next to the energy facility.

This is done in order to provide the data center with a reliable source of electricity. Interruptions in this case are practically excluded, so the data center will be one of the most reliable in the Russian Federation. Rosenergoatom is a part of Rosatom State Corporation, a concern managing Russian nuclear power plants. The data center will be commercial. About 10% of the capacity is planned to be used for the needs of the state-owned company, while the rest will be offered to private companies and organizations. Completion of works under the first construction phase is scheduled for March 2017. The data center is designed for approximately 4800 racks.

According to the authors of the project, the capacity of the new data center will be actively used by foreign companies that transfer data from Russian users to the territory of the Russian Federation.

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