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speaking from experience as someone whos worked with shipping containers (tunnel, opentop and swap-body) repurposing these containers can be a bad idea unless y

speaking from experience as someone whos worked with shipping containers (tunnel, opentop and swap-body) repurposing these containers can be a bad idea unless you know exactly what was stored in them last. Some containers come with their interior and moving parts slathered in Cosmoline and other toxic corrosion inhibitors. Others may have stored precursor chemicals to industrial adhesives or fertilizers. finally, theres no real regulation on what you can do with an over-iso (super heavy sticker) shipping container and many of them ship metals, or degraded plastics in various stages of recycling. Nuclear? sure. Walk through any port storage facility and theres sure to be a shipping container or two that will light up a geiger counter because the type-A containers inside have cracked from the heat and are leaking thorium tailings or other common low-level waste the USA ships out to third world countries and back.

jacobush 7y ago
"Super heavy sticker" means it's overweight from what the ISO standard says a shipping container should maximally weigh?
thaeli 7y ago
Yeah. For repurposing, one-trip containers are almost always your best bet. It's much easier to know what was in them, and they're in great condition - I see people trying to do conversions on a wind&watertight grade container they bought not realizing that grade is still a rusty, dented mess.
orblivion 7y ago
> Nuclear? sure. Walk through any port storage facility and theres sure to be a shipping container or two that will light up a geiger counter because the type-A containers inside have cracked from the heat and are leaking thorium tailings or other common low-level waste the USA ships out to third world countries and back. And here I was searching to make sure somebody mentioned methyl bromide. Holy shit.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- Kuinox 7y ago
  France is not a third world countries and reprocess most of nuclear waste...
hinkley 7y ago
Does anyone recall when Sun Microsystems was trying to build turnkey server rooms into shipping containers? I wonder if concerns like those you enumerate here were a minor hiccup or a major roadblock.
- throwanem 7y ago
  I imagine they were buying their containers new.
  - hinkley 7y ago
    Given that shipping is down, maybe we should be looking at brand new containers for this as well? Certainly, GGP has a point about modular construction being simpler, for sure. But the counterargument is 'can you ship them'. Anyone who lives near a port city is aware that there are train cars and semi trailers designed such that you can plop containers onto them. What I don't know is how prevalent is the equipment to unbox them on the receiving end (or for that matter, whether the container trailers are rated for long-haul). That would limit the reach to the supply chains radiating out from ports.
- dexterous 7y ago
  Originally codenamed Project Blackbox, they were eventually released as the Sun Modular Mobile Data Center (MDC)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Modular_Datacenter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Modular_Datacenter]. Famously, The Internet Archive runs off of one [ https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Internet_Archive_Sun_Modular_Datacenter.jpg/686px-Internet_Archive_Sun_Modular_Datacenter.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/In...]. AFAIK they weren't built out of repurposed containers, but new ones. But I could be wrong.
blackrock 7y ago
This is absolutely terrifying. This can also mean that anything you own, that was shipped via container, can also be laced with radiation. Oh well, I haven’t died yet, so maybe it’s just a remote probability. The COVID-19 probably has a higher chance of taking me out instead.
- blaser-waffle 7y ago
  I'd be more concerned about the radiation coming out of your cell phone or microwave or laptop wifi before losing an ounce of sleep over hidden shipping container radiation. You'll get cancer from off-gassing plastic products before shipping container radiation gives you leukemia.

jacobush 7y ago

"Super heavy sticker" means it's overweight from what the ISO standard says a shipping container should maximally weigh?

thaeli 7y ago

Yeah. For repurposing, one-trip containers are almost always your best bet. It's much easier to know what was in them, and they're in great condition - I see people trying to do conversions on a wind&watertight grade container they bought not realizing that grade is still a rusty, dented mess.

orblivion 7y ago

> Nuclear? sure. Walk through any port storage facility and theres sure to be a shipping container or two that will light up a geiger counter because the type-A containers inside have cracked from the heat and are leaking thorium tailings or other common low-level waste the USA ships out to third world countries and back. And here I was searching to make sure somebody mentioned methyl bromide. Holy shit.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Kuinox 7y ago
France is not a third world countries and reprocess most of nuclear waste...

hinkley 7y ago

Does anyone recall when Sun Microsystems was trying to build turnkey server rooms into shipping containers? I wonder if concerns like those you enumerate here were a minor hiccup or a major roadblock.

throwanem 7y ago
I imagine they were buying their containers new.
- hinkley 7y ago
  Given that shipping is down, maybe we should be looking at brand new containers for this as well? Certainly, GGP has a point about modular construction being simpler, for sure. But the counterargument is 'can you ship them'. Anyone who lives near a port city is aware that there are train cars and semi trailers designed such that you can plop containers onto them. What I don't know is how prevalent is the equipment to unbox them on the receiving end (or for that matter, whether the container trailers are rated for long-haul). That would limit the reach to the supply chains radiating out from ports.
dexterous 7y ago
Originally codenamed Project Blackbox, they were eventually released as the Sun Modular Mobile Data Center (MDC)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Modular_Datacenter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Modular_Datacenter]. Famously, The Internet Archive runs off of one [ https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Internet_Archive_Sun_Modular_Datacenter.jpg/686px-Internet_Archive_Sun_Modular_Datacenter.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/In...]. AFAIK they weren't built out of repurposed containers, but new ones. But I could be wrong.

blackrock 7y ago

This is absolutely terrifying. This can also mean that anything you own, that was shipped via container, can also be laced with radiation. Oh well, I haven’t died yet, so maybe it’s just a remote probability. The COVID-19 probably has a higher chance of taking me out instead.

blaser-waffle 7y ago
I'd be more concerned about the radiation coming out of your cell phone or microwave or laptop wifi before losing an ounce of sleep over hidden shipping container radiation. You'll get cancer from off-gassing plastic products before shipping container radiation gives you leukemia.