New Utah NSA center requires 1.7M gallons of water daily to operate

I'm not sure what exactly this could mean. That's enough water to run nuclear reactor if I'm not mistaken. This kind of stuff makes me want to throw this computer in the river and go build an underground bunker.

The NSA data center in Bluffdale could require as many as 1.7 million gallons of water per day to operate and keep computers cool.

www.ksl.com...

reply to post by GoldenRuled


A nuclear reactor, depending on type needs a lot more water than that to operate. A once through cooling system 1,000 Mwe reactor, can require up to 476,000 gallons a minute. That's for 30F, if you cool it to 20F, then it goes up to over 700,000 gallons a minute. A 1600 Mwe reactor that's being considered, at 20F would require over 1.1 million gallons a minute.

www.ucsusa.org...

It's the mind-blowing super computer from the near-singularity. A computer powered by a nuclear reactor. The information processing--and collecting ahem--abilities and speeds would be phenomenal. Hey, I was just joking when I said it, but now, come to think about it, think about it...

I wonder what amount of flash boiling takes place in the computers (and reactors).
Or how much less water would be needed if all the useless information were taken out....

reply to post by GoldenRuled

Even if there isn't a nuclear reactor powering this facility, this is an incredible waste of a precious resource: water.

All because the government is illegally spying on the American people using OUR MONEY.

That doesn't make sense for cooling. Wired and others have had articles about the Google Server Farms and they are incredible concentrations of computing power, each. The NSA could have a dozen of them (which they dont.. too small an area among other things) and the consumable quantity of water still makes little to no sense. I can see charging a closed system with a ungodly amount ...but DAILY? Where the heck is all of it going?? Computer cooling is pretty much a closed system unless they have something really new?

They have a little city under that place or something?

reply to post by gladtobehere


Especially in Salt Lake Valley, I lived there for a while and sometimes they used to restrict usage.

I am thinking the initial filling of a chiller system might be that high with other normal usage factored in, but that seems like a very high estimate. Maybe it's typical government waste and they are budgeting for much more than they will need, and at the end of the fiscal year they will flush the toilets for weeks straight.

Just a theory.

Maybe a small nuclear reactor then? Like the one Kodak had in Rochester, N.Y. ? Or like the one in the Israeli embassy.( This hasn't been proven, just a higher rating of radiation near its embassy tho ).
www.digitaltrends.com...
gizmodo.com...

Originally posted by gladtobehere
Even if there isn't a nuclear reactor powering this facility, this is an incredible waste of a precious resource: water.

It is most likely located next to a river so that outflow is returned, similar to a power plant.

reply to post by AugustusMasonicus


That's good. I was a little worried about the 'is it wasted' aspect as well.

someone pleas see HOW DEEP they are digging there if at all possible.I would recon myself but mitigating factors are currently obstructing my mobility.

I noted that the title that was published by the newspaper first said "requires 1.7M" but in the very first sentence of the article it said "could require as many as 1.7 million gallons" and for the third and final crap this journalist comes all the way back to 50% of that amount "but more recent estimates suggest the usage could be closer to half that amount."

Notice what the journo did there?

1. Sensational headline
2. Backtracked on the original claim
3. Firmed up the lower 50% estimate with actual sources

My spider sense of this article is that it was intended as disinfo. descriptions of that NSA facility in Bluffdale, Utah are carefully written to convey all of the weaknesses of the building complex, in this case, a weakness for water.

Could this "honey pot" NSA building put here to catch those people who would take direct action to defeat such a thing from happening ..?. There was never any need to put this facility ON SHOW on the front cover of Wired Magazine and no reason to tell the public how much water it was forecasted to use in the operations.

Don't they also fly drones from Utah? Could they planning to link these two things together, drones and A.I.?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Google and NSA would use different architectures depending on NSA use. If the center does decryption activities, those algorithms require A LOT of processing power, likely running processors at near 100%. On top of that I am sure they use GPUs not CPUs which kicks up the load incredibly. Keeping that size ssytem cool definitely requires water cooling. Why the water isn't recycled back into the system is questionable though.

If they are using 1.7m gallons a day for there should be a major cloud over the site during the winter from the evaporation condensing back into water.
I believe it should read that the site is recycling 1.7m gallons through there cooling system every day.

I wonder if somebody in congress (Orrin Hatch?) wrangled this to be in their home state.
I understand water (lack of) is a big issue in that part of the country.

Two words:
Quantum Computers

Originally posted by MerkabaMeditation
Two words:
Quantum Computers

Two more words:
Artificial Intelligence

reply to post by SayonaraJupiter


Very thirsty ones.

This is staggering!
My computer requires a small fan!

Jerks.