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Is GWt a common abbreviation for gigawatt? I first read that as gigawatt-tons which is a… confusing unit



Gigawatt thermal, as opposed to gigawatt electric. Gigawatt thermal is the heat your power plant makes, whereas gigawatt electric is the electricity that the heat is used to generate. They're not the same because not all the heat can be converted into electricity, and the percent of heat that gets converted varies from power plant to power plant.


Oh that makes total sense! Thanks for explaining


There is a similar unit used for tracking nuclear fuel “burnup,” which is how much energy it produced: GWd/t (or GWd/MTU).




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