An unholy marriage between big tech and nukes threatens to upend the Pacific Northwest as we know it. 45 years ago, soon after a serious accident at one of the nuclear reactors at Three Mile Island caused the core to partially melt down, Oregonians overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure banning the construction of any new nuclear reactors in Oregon until there was a permanent national radioactive waste repository. Which means never. But in the past few years proponents of an unproven technology dubbed "small modular reactors" have been trying to rescind the law. This year there are currently 15 bills before the Oregon legislature to repeal the 1980 initiative. What is sparking this resurgence of interest in restarting the nuclear industry? All the server farms, currently existing or proposed for Eastern Oregon, that are ravenously gobbling up much of the existing electricity supply.
On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Damon Motz-Storey, Executive Director of the Oregon Sierra Club, about why we need neither nukes nor server farms dedicated to AI.