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The issues
The issues
Nine issues and one case study. Each issue has a simple guide for anyone new to the subject, and an in-depth page for those who want the detail and every source.
Water
Cooling, drought and who gets cut off first
How much water on the hottest day of a drought, and who is cut off first?
Power and the grid
Electricity demand, carbon and who pays for upgrades
Who pays for the grid upgrades, and what else waits in the queue?
Chemicals and the local environment
PFAS 'forever chemicals', noise, heat and decommissioning
Which chemicals will be stored on site, and what happens to them in 30 years?
Who really benefits
Jobs, tax, and whether the investment will happen
How many permanent local jobs, once construction ends?
Who controls the data
Sovereignty, foreign law and dependence on foreign providers
If your records are stored here, whose law ultimately applies?
Resilience and concentration
Backups, single points of failure and clustering
What happens when too much depends on too few sites?
AI and the precautionary principle
What the builders of AI themselves are warning about
What evidence would move government from precaution to reassurance?
How decisions are made
Planning law in England and Wales, and who decides
Who actually decides, and when does the public get a say?
Who is affected?
When the "neighbour" lives miles away on the same water or grid
Should people sharing the same reservoir or grid be consulted?
Case study: Bro Tathan
Where several issues meet on one real site in the Vale of Glamorgan
What was settled before the public was asked?
Case study: Cardiff East
A data centre with its own gas power station, beside the A48 in Cardiff
Has the environment been properly assessed?