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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.

Hybrid Bioenergy and Hydropower Systems: Leveraging Heterogeneous Biomass and Wastes from Watersheds

Sandia National Laboratories and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) explore the water-for-energy nexus in this white paper, focusing on the impact of heterogeneous watershed waste materials on hydropower facilities. They identify key challenges--such as pile burning, wildfires, and d...

Quiroz-Arita, C., and Paudel, R.

Field-Validated, Grid-Interactive Irrigation for Energy-Water Resilience in Puerto Rico's Agricultural Experimental Stations

Puerto Rico's irrigation infrastructure depends primarily on electrically powered pumping and distribution systems, making agricultural water delivery highly vulnerable to grid instability and frequent outages. This white paper proposes the development and validation of grid-inter...

Plaza, J., and Andrade, F.

Distributed Pumped Hydro for Sustainable Energy-Water Resilience with Vertical Agriculture

This white paper focuses on water for energy and energy for water and food security. Pumped Hydro energy storage systems have been utilized for over 100 years to offer many advantages to grid management including long life, high efficiency, low maintenance, dispatchable electrici...

Bibeault, M., Sevanto, S., Hanson, D., and Akil, A.

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.

Revolutionizing Water-Energy Infrastructure Resilience through Distributed Sensing and Digital Twins

This white paper addresses the intersection of Water for Energy and Energy for Water, proposing foundational technology to enhance the resilience and operational longevity of critical national assets, including hydropower facilities and marine energy systems. The core challenge i...

Luo, L.

Cross-sector Decision-making Support for Energy-Water Resilience

Cross-sector decision-making support has the potential to advance energy-water resilience across scales, geographies, and technologies. Research and development of structured frameworks, tools, and participatory processes can help to inform joint evaluation of trade-offs, align pr...

Arkema, K., Daly, M., Duffy, K., Gunn, C., Henderson, C., Hou, H., Johnston, K., Marten, B., Morrice, K., Nelson, L., Niazi, H., Shereda, A., Beck, A., Griffin, R., and Matson, P.