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Nuclear vs. the alternatives: what should power AI?

by Joe Miller

A data center needs a huge amount of power every minute of every day. Nuclear, natural gas, solar with batteries, wind, geothermal and the grid all compete for the job. Here's how they stack up on cost, reliability, speed and pollution, and what a nuclear engineer would pick.

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How much of the time each source actually runs (capacity factor)Nuclearabout 93%Geothermalabout 70%Natural gas, combined cycleabout 60%Coalabout 45%Hydroabout 36%Windabout 34%Solarabout 24%Share of the year a plant runs at full output, U.S. fleet averages (EIA). A data center needs power 100% of the time.
Nuclear runs more of the year than anything else. Solar and wind need batteries or backup to run 24/7.

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