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Comment on AI datacenters may gulp NYC's daily water supply at peak

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cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

They could also use treated waste water for cooling the data centers instead of dumping it in the ocean.

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tal@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Yeah, there’s some nuclear power plant here in the US that uses sewage for cooling. It’s out in the middle of the desert, Arizona or New Mexico or something, somewhere where it’d be a pain to bring in a bunch more water.

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Arizona.

en.wikipedia.org/…/Palo_Verde_Nuclear_Generating_…

The Palo Verde Generating Station is a nuclear power plant located near Tonopah, Arizona[5] about 45 miles (72 km) west of downtown Phoenix. Palo Verde generates the second most electricity of any power plant in the United States per year, and is the second largest power plant by net generation as of 2021.[6] Palo Verde has the third-highest rated capacity of any U.S power plant. It is a critical asset to the Southwest, generating approximately 32 million megawatt-hours annually.

At its location in the Arizona desert, Palo Verde is the only nuclear generating facility in the world that is not located adjacent to a large body of above-ground water. The facility evaporates water from the treated sewage of several nearby municipalities to meet its cooling needs. Up to 26 billion US gallons (~100,000,000 m³) of treated water are evaporated each year.[12][13] This water represents about 25% of the annual overdraft of the Arizona Department of Water Resources Phoenix Active Management Area.[14] At the nuclear plant site, the wastewater is further treated and stored in an 85-acre (34 ha) reservoir and a 45-acre (18 ha) reservoir for use in the plant’s wet cooling towers.

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