走进人工智能数据中心幕后（五）
Nuclear energy has its downsides, of course. The waste is radioactive and must be stored almost indefinitely, and the meltdown at Japan's Fukushima plant in 2011 was a reminder of how spectacularly dangerous nuclear reactors can be.
毫无疑问，核能也有短板。核废料带有放射性，必须近乎永久封存，2011年日本福岛核电站的堆芯熔毁事件再次警示了核反应堆可能引发的灾难性后果。
But the dangers posed by the burning of fossil fuels are far more imminent.
然而，化石能源燃烧引发的风险要紧迫得多。
At Three Mile Island, Marcheskie led me down a hall and into the actual power plant.
在三里岛，马尔切斯基领着我穿过一条长廊，走进了发电厂内部。
Pipes, tubes, and hulking machines lined the floor and ceiling; a trefoil sign warned that a large tank potentially contained radioactive materials.
粗大的管道与巨型设备占据了地面与天花板的空间；三叶草标识提示附近的大型储罐内可能存有放射性物质。
The elevator was broken, so we walked a few stories up to the stadium-size room from which all of Three Mile Island's electricity will flow.
由于电梯故障，我们徒步攀爬数层楼梯，来到一个堪比体育场的巨型空间，三里岛的全部电力都将由此输出。
Scaffolding and shipping containers were scattered around a row of pistachio-green semi-cylinders.
在一排青绿色的半圆柱形装置四周，散布着脚手架与集装箱。
Once the plant restarts, uranium atoms ripped apart in the adjacent core will generate immense amounts of heat, vaporizing water into steam that will spin blades inside those cylinders 1,800 times a minute, which will in turn produce hundreds of megawatts of electricity.
电厂重新投运后，紧邻反应堆堆芯中裂变的铀原子将释放海量热能，将水化为蒸汽，推动这些圆柱体内的叶轮以每分钟1800转的速度旋转，进而输出数百兆瓦的电力。
This will be orchestrated from a nearby control room, where hundreds of lights and switches line muted-green walls.
所有这些操作均由邻近的控制室统一调度，室内成排的指示灯与开关镶嵌在浅绿色的墙面上。
The shift manager, Bill Price, explained that one half of the main panel controls the nuclear core, while the other half controls the turbines.
值班主管比尔·普莱斯介绍，主控面板的两个区域分别负责核反应堆堆芯与汽轮机的操控。
In the middle is the most important control of all: a red button that shuts down the reactor, and above it an identical button that serves as a backup.
面板中央是最为核心的控制部件：一枚用于紧急停堆的红色按钮，其正上方另设一枚同款按钮作为冗余备份。
In the event of an emergency, Price said, you'd press both.
普莱斯表示，一旦出现紧急状况，需同时触发两枚按钮。
I put a finger on each button and pushed.
我伸出双手食指，同时按下。
A small amount of the electricity generated here will support the plant itself.
该电厂所发电力的一小部分将用于保障自身运转。
Microsoft is buying the remainder through a power-purchase agreement, a mechanism companies use to buy carbon-free electricity to match whatever their facilities draw from the grid.
微软通过购电协议包销了剩余电量，这是企业用来采购零碳电力以抵消其设施电网用电的常见手段。
Power generated at Three Mile Island will help offset the energy used by data centers in Virginia and Illinois; Microsoft says it purchases enough clean energy to match all of its electricity consumption, as do Google,Amazon, and Meta.
三里岛所发电力将用于对冲弗吉尼亚州与伊利诺伊州数据中心的能耗；微软宣称其清洁能源采购量已完全覆盖自身全部电力消耗，谷歌、亚马逊及Meta同样如此。
These companies are also investing in hydropower, geothermal plants, and solar panels; Google is exploring building a data center in space, to enable cloud-free access to the sun.
上述企业亦在水电、地热及光伏领域持续布局；谷歌更在筹划将数据中心送入太空，以摆脱云层遮挡、获取稳定太阳能。
Still, tech firms insist that nuclear and other clean technologies cannot be deployed quickly enough to meet their needs.
但科技巨头们坚称，核电及其他清洁技术的落地节奏仍难以匹配其需求增速。
President Trump has signed an executive order to accelerate permitting for natural-gas and coal-fired plants to support data centers.
特朗普总统已颁布行政令，简化天然气及燃煤电厂的审批流程，为数据中心保驾护航。
Yet China's energy advantage in the Al race comes from nuclear reactors and solar panels, not coal and oil; the country is building nearly two-thirds of the world's new solar and wind capacity.
然而，中国在人工智能竞赛中的能源底气源自核反应堆与光伏板，而非煤炭与石油；该国正在承建全球近三分之二的新增太阳能与风能装机。
The U.S. could still catch up, thanks to private investments by the likes of Google and Microsoft.
凭借谷歌、微软等企业的资本注入，美国仍有迎头赶上的可能。
A majority of planned electricity generation in the U.S. will be carbon-free, and running data centers on renewables can be done, Jenkins, the Princeton climate modeler, told me.
普林斯顿气候建模专家詹金斯向我表示，美国规划中的发电项目多数将实现零碳，数据中心依托可再生能源运行具备可行性。
Meanwhile, natural-gas turbines are so far back-ordered that acquiring one in the next few years will be virtually impossible.
与此同时，天然气轮机的订单已严重积压，未来数年内几乎无法获得新设备。
For now, using existing power sources more wisely, rather than building new ones, may be all the Al industry needs.
现阶段，与其新建电源，不如更高效地调度既有电力，这或许正是人工智能行业所急需的。
Electrical grids are designed for periods of peak demand-cooling on summer afternoons, heating on winter mornings-but mostly they run well below maximum capacity.
电网的设计初衷是应对夏季午后制冷、冬季清晨采暖等尖峰负荷，但绝大多数时段其负载远低于设计上限。
Researchers at Duke University have shown that if data centers reduced their electricity consumption during some of those peaks, it would free up enough electricity to accommodate the country's planned data centers for years.
杜克大学的研究团队指出，若数据中心能在部分尖峰时段主动压降用电，释放的电量足以支撑该国未来数年的数据中心扩张计划。
Google and xAl have already entered agreements to do so.
谷歌与xAI已就此签订了相关协议。
That strategy would allow tech companies to continue building more data centers without waiting for utilities to expand the grid.
这一策略将让科技企业在无需等待电网扩容的前提下，持续推进数据中心建设。
And time, not dollars or electrons, is the Al industry's primary currency.
对人工智能行业而言，真正稀缺的资源是时间，而非资金或电力。
Google, Microsoft, and their competitors can afford to spend historic sums without near-term financial returns, but they cannot afford to slip behind one another.
谷歌、微软及同业者虽有能力承受短期内无回报的巨额投入，却无法容忍彼此间的位次差距。
Time is also the biggest problem Microsoft's deal with Three Mile Island, which is taking years to restart.
时间同样是微软与三里岛项目面临的最大瓶颈——该电站的重启工作已耗时多年。
As we left the facility, Marcheskie led me south, past the beige towers and through a fog that had settled over the river.
离开核电站后，马尔切斯基带我向南行进，途经米色塔楼，穿越笼罩河面的薄雾。
At one point we passed a cluster of concrete barrels that had escaped my attention on the drive up.
途中我们经过一摞混凝土桶，开车进来时我并未留意。
Marcheskie told me that they contained all of the nuclear waste from Unit One's 45 years of operation.
马尔切斯基称，这些桶内封存着一号机组过去45年运行所产生的全部核废料。
Perhaps one day such casks will also line the perimeters of Colossus and Stargate.
或许有朝一日，类似容器也会环绕在“巨像”与“星际之门”的周围。
Al may well overhaul how humans think and work, but it's also pushing us toward another inflection point.
人工智能极有可能重塑人类的思维与工作模式，但与此同时，它正把我们推向又一个历史拐点。
We can unlock the promises of this technology by doubling down on the energy systems of the past, or we can seize the opportunity to push the grid into a carbon-free future.
我们既可以沿用旧有能源体系来兑现这项技术的承诺，也可以借此契机推动电网迈向零碳未来。
To get there, an industry that likes to move at warp speed will have to develop a quality it severely lacks: patience.
要达成这一目标，这个习惯于超速前行的行业必须修炼一种它极为欠缺的素养——耐心。