Papers for

power plant operators

Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.

Data centers save water and cost with nuclear power scheduling

FissionReady: Joint Workload and Power Scheduling for Data Centers Powered by Small Modular Reactors

Abstract: Data centers are increasingly exploring small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) as a carbon-free power source, but variable datacenter demand and negative grid prices require the SMR plant to load-follow rather than run at constant output. Load following is uniquely challenging and complex for SMR plants due to underlying nuclear physics. We propose FissionReady, a datacenter scheduler that tracks each module's fuel age, xenon state, and remaining flexibility to determine per-module operating envelopes, then coordinates load-following, batch deferral, and grid purchasing through a two-timescale optimization. FissionReady achieves zero involuntary shutdowns and zero batch deadline misses while reducing water consumption by roughly one-third and grid cost by roughly half compared to a same-sized base configuration.

Wed 30 SeptDistributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing

The gist

Data centers can run on small nuclear reactors that produce clean energy, but these reactors are hard to adjust quickly based on changing electricity needs. The authors designed FissionReady, a system that carefully plans how each reactor module works to match the data center’s power demand without shutting down or missing important tasks. This system also reduces water use and electricity costs by better timing power from the reactors and the grid. FissionReady takes into account the complex physics inside reactors to keep them safe and efficient.

Open → 2609.39422v1