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SGI Goes Nuclear
SGI announced that the UK Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) concluded acceptance of three SGI ICE X systems in a formal ceremony on Friday.
The ceremony marked AWE’s acknowledgment that the SGI supercomputer systems are fully operational.
AWE builds and maintains warheads for the UK’s Trident submarine nuclear deterrent. This covers the entire life cycle of nuclear warheads, from initial concept, assessment and design through component manufacture and assembly, in-service support, decommissioning and disposal.
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty prohibits tests that produces any nuclear yield underground, underwater, in the atmosphere or in space. AWE must therefore continually develop methods to verify the safety and reliability of nuclear warheads through a science-based program.
“It’s critical that advanced high-performance computing systems underpin our science program, and SGI’s supercomputing systems are enabling us to quickly advance research and development. Crucially, this means we can continue to underwrite the safety and effectiveness of the Trident warhead in the comprehensive test ban treaty era,” said Paul Tomlinson, head of High Performance Computing at AWE.
“From the very outset there was a one-team approach between SGI and AWE. We are very happy with the professionalism and adaptability of SGI to meet and exceed our expectations throughout this complex project.”
SGI said that its ICE X supercomputer systems were subjected to a series of stringent acceptance tests and reliability runs. The firm added that the performance achieved throughout the testing not only met, but in many cases exceeded, SGI’s performance commitments.
“As is often the case with critically important supercomputers of this magnitude, the project was subject to a demanding delivery timeline. The dedication and expertise of our onsite services team working in close partnership with AWE ensured we completed acceptance ahead of the agreed timetable,” said SGI CEO and president Jorge Titinger.
“Our services capabilities differentiated SGI in the bidding process and we went above and beyond to deliver on our promises.”
He added, “Our continued commitment to AWE ensures they can address the future of nuclear weapons, and safely, strategically advance a range of scientific challenges. The SGI ICE X systems are scalable and flexible, enabling AWE to run a wide range of applications and improve scientific modelling.”
MIT Goes Nuclear
It used to be that silly thinks were designed by arts school graduates, but now it appears that engineers are having a crack at it. MIT have come up with what they think is a brilliant idea to stick a nuclear power plant on the ocean.
The cunning plan is to build a plant on a floating platform, moored in deep water several miles off the coast. They claim that it will be virtually immune to earthquakes, tsunamis and meltdowns. In deep water, tsunami waves aren’t large enough to cause significant damage, and earthquakes are not felt at all. MIT’s Jacopo Buongiorno said that floating the reactor on the ocean also gives the plant access to easy, passive cooling and an “infinite heat sink.”
Clearly, Buongiorno has not seen many disaster films, but we would have thought that the concept of humanity building an unsinkable anything went down with the Titanic. While deep water might be tsunami proof, it would not be immune to storms. While the in an emergency situation that sees the plant venting radioactive gasses into the ocean, rather than into the air one of the problems with the Fukushima leak was that radioactive sea water polluted huge chunks of the ocean.