4 ms·

Does the NYC Subway really run on nuclear power? I had no idea, but that is cool.

• ynniv 10y ago
  Probably half nuclear: http://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=NY#tabs-4 http://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=NY#tabs-4
  • mikeash 10y ago
    The rest is mostly natural gas, and virtually no coal. I'm jealous! (Here in Virginia, it's about one third each of coal, gas, and nuclear.)
    • pavel_lishin 10y ago
      Isn't Virginia a huge coal-mining state? I'm surprised nuclear is that high of a percentage. I recall visiting a coal-mining museum in some state that had a big coal industry, and it was amazing how optimistic and pro-coal the whole thing was. (Note that I said "amazing", not "surprising".)
      • mikeash 10y ago
        There's some here, but most of the coal mining activity is further west. West Virginia is the biggest coal state on the east coast and second biggest in the US. Nice map here: http://www.virginiaplaces.org/geology/coal.html http://www.virginiaplaces.org/geology/coal.html It looks like their electricity is absolutely dominated by coal. Even though not much in mined in state, we're close enough to WV and others that it seems like it would still be the obvious source here. I'm not sure why it's not, although I'm glad!
• 45h34jh53k4j 10y ago
  Lots of power in NYC is nuclear, but not all. At least some proportion of electrons in that third rail will have be excited by nuclear heat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_New_York https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_New_...