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Synergistic Pathways for Water Security in Emerging Sectors: Data Centers and Modern Nuclear Facilities

Stand-alone data centers, nuclear-powered data centers, and novel nuclear facilities such as fusion plant and small modular reactors are water intensive sectors poised to rapidly expand, presenting a significant challenge to the water-for-energy nexus. The potential for large-scal...

Catalano, A., Duan, Z., Quimby, C., Wang, T., Chini, C., Premathilake, L., and Pope, J.

Aligning Bytes with Basins to Promote Data Center Growth in the U.S.

This white paper examines the water-energy tradeoffs of U.S. data-center expansion, highlighting how cooling choices, power sourcing, and siting decisions shape local water security, grid resilience, and watershed sustainability. The study focuses on integrating direct (on-site po...

Siddik, M., Turner, S., and Chinthavali, S.

Water Availability for Cooling Systems: Assessing Demands, Constraints, and Alternative Sources for Thermoelectric Plants and Data Centers

This white paper focuses on enhancing the intersection of energy and water resilience by advancing water reuse and reclamation technologies, particularly for thermoelectric power plants and data centers. The primary goal is to efficiently manage cooling water to meet growing deman...

Pacheco, C., Cafferty, K., Reese, S., Atkinson, T., Mosier, T., and Tidwell, V.

Water Reuse Energy Demands and Water Quality Metrics

This white paper discusses strategies for enhancing water resilience in energy production by advancing water reuse and reclamation technologies, particularly for thermoelectric power plants and data centers. The focus is on efficiently closing the water loop by processing discharg...

Shurtliff, M., and Reese, S.

Enabling Energy-Water Resilience in U.S. Data Centers: Water-Aware Grid Planning and Operations with Infrastructure-Compatible Cooling

Rapid, concentrated expansion of AI data centers is reshaping electricity demand profiles, local infrastructure requirements, and regional resource constraints. These facilities are often sized from tens to hundreds of megawatts with multi-gigawatt campus clusters. They are relati...

Zhou, Z., Wu, M., Qiu, F., Muehleisen, R., Zhao, D., Yan, E., and Worek, W.

Energy-Water-Land Frameworks for Data Center Siting and Operations

This white paper focuses on energy-water-land intersections for data center siting and operations. Challenges include rapid deployment of data centers and consequential uncertainty regarding the extent these facilities may impact or be constrained by water, land, and energy resou...

Macknick, J., Schneider, K., Barton, R., Hardikar, M., Martin, J., Struck, S., Lepley, K., Steward, D., Smith, F., Levine, A., Rivers, M., Rosenlieb, E., Gu, J., Podgorny, S., Castelao, G., and Leick, N.