Americans Would Rather Have a Nuclear Plant In Their Backyard Than a Datacenter
- Reference: 0183219463
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/05/15/0217208/americans-would-rather-have-a-nuclear-plant-in-their-backyard-than-a-datacenter
- Source link:
> When it comes to the reasons for opposing AI campuses, half of all respondents cite the effect on resources, with excess water usage and potential power grid constraints topping the list. Concern about loss of farmland and nature was surprisingly low, with just 7 percent mentioning this, but it is possible the scores are higher in rural areas. Quality-of-life concerns such as increased traffic were put forward by nearly a quarter, while a fifth mentioned higher utility bills.
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> Many were worried about AI specifically: that it would replace human workers, that they don't trust it, that it is moving too fast, and that the industry needs regulating. Perhaps the latter sentiment is why President Trump appears to have shifted his own position on the need for AI regulations. Conversely, those in favor of datacenters cite economic benefits, with 55 percent mentioning increased job opportunities, and 13 percent saying it is because of increased tax revenues.
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> [...] This being America in 2026, Gallup looked at how attitudes stack up depending on political affiliation. It found that Democrats, at 56 percent, are much more likely than Republicans to be strongly opposed to a server farm in their vicinity. But 39 percent of Republicans are also strongly opposed, while another 24 percent are somewhat averse to it, and only about a third are in favor. Gallup points out the contradiction: for AI usage to expand in the US, facilities that can handle the necessary computing power will have to be built. But most Americans appear to take a "not in my backyard" attitude to new bit barns, and that attitude has grown in strength.
[1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx
[2] https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2026/05/14/americans-would-rather-have-a-nuclear-plant-in-their-backyard-than-a-datacenter/5240203
Maybe they need the Nuke first (Score:3)
To power the DC you first need to have the Nuke power plant, and that will take longer to build.
Re: (Score:1)
Nope, build the data center first and the AI will 4D print a nuclear reactor back in the present.
Re: (Score:3)
Such outdated thinking. Don't you know that if you build the datacenter first, magically utilities will appear? Wizards will relocate to that location and start conjuring water. Romulans will lend the community an artificial singularity to power the datacenter. Just wait for step 4. Profit.
Re: (Score:2)
Both datacentres and nuclear plants need a lot of water too.
nuclear = quality of life (Score:1)
Down here in the heat and humidity of USDA Zone 10-11, my monthly summer/fall electric bills are now topping $900 (and still rising!) which is as big as my family's food bill. I keep most of the house at 79 during the day and bedrooms 75-76 at night. I know many folks who just peg it at 72 or lower all the time. I would absolutely live within range of a NPP or SMR. It's 2026 and there's no reason we shouldn't be down in the $0.05/kWh range in the US.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Here in Italy I live in a *large* single family home, and the montly bill is of about 300 USD. It is a 100% elctric powered home (heath pump, induction kitchen, etc.), and in a few months I will have 6kW solar panels installed, dropping on average my bill to 0 USD/month. Remember also that Italy has a very high cost for kWh, when compared to the rest of EU, and unfortunately we phased out nuclear reactors years ago. Maybe something is wrong with the whole US electric power supply.
Re: (Score:2)
> Maybe something is wrong with the whole US electric power supply.
There is, and it's protectionism and cronyism.
Here in California, PG&E literally burned down [much of] Paradise[, CA] by skipping maintenance for literally 99 years.
Re: (Score:3)
> Down here in the heat and humidity of USDA Zone 10-11, my monthly summer/fall electric bills are now topping $900
That seems disproportionate. I don't know what your local electric rate is, but guessing it's around $0.20/kWh [ [1]ref [eia.gov]], that's 4500 kWh each month, or 150 kWh per day! The typical US household consumes something like 30 kWh/day [ [2]ref [eia.gov]].
I suggest you find yourself an energy audit. Your local utility or state government probably has a program where it would be free-of-charge or heavily subsidized. They could help identify things like inadequate insulation or sealing, outdate/inefficient equipment, etc. O
[1] https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=table_5_03
[2] https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3
The 'humming' from them is terrible (Score:3)
I live near a hundred of them, in Ashburn Va. They are everywhere here. One turned on near me and I have exceptionally good hearing, along with some of my neighbors. We can all hear the low pitched humming from its rooftop coolers. I can't wait to move in a few years.
Hope you're living in an apartment (Score:2)
If you can hear that hum then your property values are basically toast. You're not the only one thinking, I can't wait to move in a few years...
On the other hand once you get used to the smell of rendered hog fat you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
I guess weâ(TM)ll have to relearn (Score:2)
how to optimize code to run efficiently.
And also how to use code efficiently.
I wonder what it would be like if agents werenâ(TM)t trying to communicate like humans. In other words humans would have to learn more technical way of interacting, which would free up significant processing power on the output, even if the output is meant to be humanish.
Re: (Score:2)
How about companies not monitoring their employees AI use to encourage tokenmaxxing, which is equivalent to electrical power maxxing?
Easy (Score:5, Insightful)
Nuclear plants create jobs.
AI datacenters eliminate jobs.
Which one to like and want?
Re: (Score:2)
Also, nuclear plant produces power, AI datacenter consumes it. Nuke plants won't make their power cheaper, but they also won't make it [1]unavailable [futurism.com] .
[1] https://futurism.com/science-energy/town-power-data-centers
Re: Easy (Score:4, Informative)
Nuke power plants might make their electricity cheaper. When they shut down San Onofre, that led to increased electricity costs for the region for years. They are quite competitive in constrained energy markets like you find in some hilly areas West of the Rockies. The reliance on imported energy increases costs. Producing locally using nukes lowers them.
Re: (Score:2)
Eh, nuclear isn't commercially viable without the subsidies. Onshore wind and solar both are, and offshore wind is getting there.
So the electricity bill might be lower, but it gets paid for out of taxation anyway.
And they'd rather have a firing squad (Score:2)
Than be buried alive. Maybe stop putting risky or annoying shit next to residential areas?
Concern is over AI spying and digital surveillance (Score:1)
I think the actual concern is over abuses of AI and death of privacy rather than data centers. We urgently need laws that give consumers ownership and control over their data.
Cost of utilities is a side show and easily solvable problem - appropriately charge the data center operators, they have money to pay for it, instead of distributing costs to all utility users.
Re:Concern is over AI spying and digital surveilla (Score:4, Funny)
> appropriately charge the data center operators, they have money to pay for it, instead of distributing costs to all utility users.
That's just unamerican. Industry should be publicly subsidised and privately profitable. How else do you expect to keep the middle class in check?
Re: (Score:2)
One of the reasons for the war on renewables is the spectre of people being able to make their own energy at home, and even disconnecting from the grid entirely.
Low local benefit is key (Score:2)
Data centers take up land, power, and water that could be used by local businesses or homes. Even the largest data centers need ~50 employees. This is the same problem with self-storage places, and why some places now restrict building more of them. Just not much benefit to justify them locally.
Oh, so it's silly. (Score:2)
Fear before thought. Ok.
ÂPor qué no los dos? (Score:2)
ÂPor qué no los dos?
The data center in Utah that got forced through (Score:3)
It's going to dump 26 atomic bombs worth of heat into the air every single day and use more electricity than the state is currently using in total.
If that thing goes online and it looks like it will because it's backed by a billionaire at a corrupt state then there will be water and electricity shortages.
And yes that includes water shortages. Data centers don't need to use clean drinking water but it's cheaper for them to do so and when they're done with it it can't easily be recycled because they pump it with chemicals to prevent it from corroding their cooling systems.
We spent the last 45 years giving all the money and power to billionaires are stupid reasons. Bad things are going to happen now and they're going to happen so fast the old farts that voted to allow this shit might not have a chance to die before it bites them in the ass
5,000 vs. 57 (Score:2)
There are 57 nuclear power plants in the US. Hardly anyone has one in their back yard.
There are around 5,000 data centers in the US, and they're popping up all over the place, from small towns to random neighborhoods.
If there were 5,000 nuclear power plants, and they were being built at a crazy rate, people would be annoyed about them too.
Seen It With My Own Eyes (Score:2)
I actually have a nuke plant in my backyard (well I'm within 15 miles of one anyway) and everyone is fine with it but they're fighting like hell to keep data centers out. It doesn't help that the two or three sites they've proposed to build them on are right up against housing developments or park land, but I'm sure all the people on our city council who suddenly became very wealthy won't mind because they'll have moved by the time they get built.
Re: (Score:2)
Bay City?
Datacenters now at your neighbors houses (Score:1)
Distributed pollution. They have found a way around the big datacenter bans by distributing them on houses disgusted as HVAC [1]https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/0... [cnbc.com]
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/05/nvidia-pulte-span-mini-data-centers-on-homes.html
Re: Virtually impossible to steal (Score:1)
Inside these tiny datacenters on homes, nVidia is using the technology they developed for the USA government to remotely disable equipment sold to China; not only does it disable if disconnected from the network for too long, it’s even hardened against company insiders selling knowledge and tools to criminal organizations for mass theft.
I suppose that tracks (Score:1)
You might get a different answer to the survey if you changed how you ask the question. Would you rather have a data center as your neighbor, or would you prefer to live next to the breached containment pools of radioactive water at Fukushima?
I do not oppose nuclear power plants because of their impact on my quality of life. I oppose them because the long-term dangers outweigh any short-term benefits. I simply do not believe that humanity can responsibly operate nuclear power plants and store their waste pr
You will get both and you will like it (Score:2)
First the nuclear power plant, then the data center. This will be rammed down the throats of the residents whether they like it or not.
Monied interests are just too powerful in the United States.
With the subversion of the elections by gerrymanders, this is only going to get worse.
Re: (Score:2)
> First the nuclear power plant, then the data center.
Other way around. First the data center. Then, once residents grow tired of the blackouts, they'll beg for a nuke.
Conspicuously Absent (Score:2)
They shoul have asked as well:
1) Do you use AI
2) Do you pay for it
I'm sure that there are people who do, but don't wont datacentres. NIMBY
Nuclear power plants create something useful. (Score:1)
Critically useful. On the ohter hand, ChatGPT, not so useful.
Also of course we won't need these datacenters pretty soon when LLMs are 1000X more efficient (some already are). Super cheap electricity - that's actually useful.
100% understandable (Score:2)
I mean, same. An NPP next door would at least mean a little cheaper electricity locally. Even if I'm using a datacenter, it might as well be in the depths and it will serve me just as well.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know about you, perhaps in your case it's different, but most people also know other negative sentiments than "fear".
Re: (Score:2)
Or, y'know, they have human senses: [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPtB3g5BSVk
Re: (Score:2)
Even if you can't hear it, the ultra low frequency sounds from these massive structures can fuck with people pretty bad: [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo
Re: (Score:2)
Wanting America to lose a war we had no business starting in the first place by the President of the United States of Israel isn't TDS. The swing voters in the middle were voting for the person who stood against wars and kept America out of it the first time. After the three entirely fake assassination attempts (his ear is 100% fine folks. He could have at least surgically removed a chunk to make it believable), it's clear this was a very long con game. I think Trump knew he'd go to war in his lame duck ter
Re: (Score:1)
> Wanting America to lose a war we had no business starting in the first place by the President of the United States of Israel isn't TDS. The swing voters in the middle were voting for the person who stood against wars and kept America out of it the first time. After the three entirely fake assassination attempts (his ear is 100% fine folks. He could have at least surgically removed a chunk to make it believable), it's clear this was a very long con game. I think Trump knew he'd go to war in his lame duck ter
Re: (Score:2)
But we let Israel get away with stealing over 200 pounds of enriched uranium from the US in 1965.
Re:100% understandable (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, a nuclear plant gives local employment. A data center has very few workers once built.
Re: (Score:2)
>> Also, a nuclear plant gives local employment. A data center has very few workers once built.
> Just as long as it's not Homer Simpson at the controls!
You jest, but there is some real truth there. Consider: Homer Simpson is a dolt with a high-school education. And yet, with this walk-on job at the plant, he's able to provide a family of four a decent lifestyle on that single income.
That was plausible when the show launched 35+ years ago. Today, that scenario seems fantastical. [ [1]1 [theatlantic.com]] [ [2]2 [npr.org]] [ [3]3 [vox.com]] [ [4]4 [marketplace.org]]
[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/12/life-simpsons-no-longer-attainable/617499/
[2] https://www.npr.org/2022/06/02/1102751823/homer-simpson-vs-the-economy
[3] https://www.vox.com/2016/9/6/12752476/the-simpsons-homer-middle-class
[4] https://www.marketplace.org/story/2016/12/14/what-homer-simpson-can-tell-us-about-economy
Re:100% understandable (Score:4, Funny)
Why does New York have all the lawyers and New Jersey the toxic waste dumps?
New Jersey had first choice.
Re: (Score:2)
Nuclear power is much more expensive than any other type of electricity.