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Water for Baseload Power-A Revamp of the Nation's Nuclear Water Use Data

Providing approximately 20% of total U.S. electricity generation each year from a fleet of only 54 plants (94 reactors) nationwide, the nuclear sector is characterized by large and locally impactful power generating facilities. About half of existing reactors rely on once-through ...

Turner, S., Siddik, M., Montgomery, C., and Marston, L.

Monitoring, Planning, and Management of Water Quality and Quantity for Resilient Water and Energy Systems

Both resilient systems where water is used for energy production and energy is used for treatment and operation depend not only on the quantity of water, but also quality and environmental health. Addressing gaps in environmental health and infrastructure condition/capability data...

Hansen, C., DeRolph, C., Allen-Dumas, M., Griffiths, N., Matson, P., Pilla, R., Siddik, A., Stevenson, L., and Johnson, R.

Supporting adoption of advanced forecast informed reservoir operations tools to improve agricultural and municipal water and energy outcomes

Expanding the use of advanced forecast-informed reservoir operations tools can optimize or improve water delivery and storage for energy generation, irrigation, and municipal uses. Advanced forecast-informed data and tools are increasingly being integrated into large-scale reservo...

Jorgensen, J., Giovando, J., Pracheil, B., Hou, H., and Niazi, H.

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.

The Case for Managed Aquifer Recharge as a Tool to Enhance Water and Energy Resilience

Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) enhances groundwater storage and has untapped potential to support energy systems. It can improve water reliability for thermoelectric and hydropower facilities, especially amid rising energy demands and water stress. A near-term opportunity is to ev...

Ferencz, S., Giovando, J., and Day-Lewis, F.

High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) effects on Energy-Water resilience

Executive Order 13865 emphasizes the need to focus on critical infrastructure resilience to high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) effects, indicating that simulation of EMP effects on both energy and water systems need to be studied. The key technical challenges in assessing ...

Tabarez, J., Barnes, A., and Nelson, E.

Hardening Forested Watersheds to Wildfire to Enhance Downstream Water Quality for Critical Energy Infrastructure

This white paper focuses on water-for-energy stability, emphasizing the risks to energy infrastructure from water quality impacts due to severely burned forested watersheds. The primary challenge is that energy production in the U.S. is vulnerable to surface water quality, with hi...

Crockett, J., and Krofcheck, D.

Agentic Optimization for Resilience in Hydropower Reservoir Systems

The growing electricity demand in the U.S. requires a resilient energy strategy. Hydropower is a major component of that strategy but is subject to environmental and human stressors that impact its dependability. AI-driven reinforcement learning, called "Agentic" learning, presen...

Schwenk, J., Garcia-Cardona, C., Bennett, K., Singh, S., and Brelsford, C.