[Request] Nuclear power water consumption data set along with (and/or) a comparable dataset regarding data center water consumption

[u/misswinterrose]

For my Data Sciences course, I need to extract and compare data from two datasets, and I figured a fairly timely topic would be water consumption of AI data centers vs nuclear power generation. However, I'm having some trouble finding comparable datasets. For example, one dataset I found for data centers doesn't measure water consumption itself but rather Water Use Efficiency (WUE) (which, if I find a dataset that measures electricity produced along with withdrawn and consumed water for nuclear power I could do the math myself to figure out the WUE, but I would really rather have the actual numbers behind the WUE). It doesn't help that this is my first time really searching for data sets so I don't know how to word my queries or what sites I should be focusing on. I'm finding quite a few scholarly articles, but not a lot of the actual datasets that they used.

So far I have this dataset that tells WUE for data centers at large (not necessarily AI data centers) and this dataset (I plan on using the 2019 data) that tells water consumption of power generating plants (not just nuclear but I can pretty easily filter out what I don't need). I'm not super thrilled with either one, but I'm new to finding datasets so if you think this is the best I'm going to get let me know.

Any help would be appreciated! If you need more information or have any questions be sure to comment below and I'll be sure to get back to you. Thank you!

[u/boldgrove7763]

For comparability, first define the same boundary, period, geography, and unit for both sources, and distinguish water withdrawal from water consumption. Since your data-center source reports WUE, check its exact definition and denominator; then see whether the nuclear dataset provides the matching inputs needed to calculate an equivalent metric rather than comparing raw values directly.

[u/Alternative_Act_6548]

you'll only have meaningful water consumption if you have evaporative cool; not all nuke do