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this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
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Why would a data center not be able to employ the same mechanism of having a closed water system and dumping heat?
Waste management is an issue for sure when it comes to nuclear, but the economics of nuclear is arguably the bigger problem - not to mention their uninsurability.
Closed watet system is expensive and less scalable construction wise.
Nuclear plant employs it because the water has direct contact to the nuclear fuel, containing radioactive minerals. It cannot be released outside without treatment. It is necessity than choice. Companies would've chosen open water system if regulation allowed to so that they don't have to pay the cleanup fee.
My understanding is that all nuclear power plants have a primary closed loop system (for the direct contact part), but the secondary cooling system, by heat exchange with the closed system, can either be evaporative or by heat exchange with an available body of water.
Nuclear plant has been historically built nearby water body without water loss (evaporating). Shift to open system happened mostly in US due to regulation in response to marine environment protection. However majority of plants are still located in coast side (UK, Korea, Japan, Finland etc) using sea water, inland one still utilize river water (France).
For new US reactors likely employ open system so your water concern stands, though its open evaporation system is optimized better than unoptimized data center ones.