The language of the physical present.
Plain, practitioner definitions across compute, energy, earth and quantum.
A working vocabulary for the teams that build compute, contract power, move equipment, and price the constraints between them.
The vocabulary these markets use loosely.
Three ways in.
Compute & Silicon
Process node
The generation label for a semiconductor manufacturing process, and a marketing name rather than a physical measurement.
EUV lithography
Extreme ultraviolet patterning, the step that makes leading-edge chips possible and the narrowest point in the equipment supply chain.
Wafer fab equipment (WFE)
The tools that turn a fab shell into working capacity, and the spend that leads announced semiconductor capacity by one to two years.
Die yield
The share of dies on a wafer that work, which is what turns wafer capacity into a number of shippable parts.
Advanced packaging
The steps that assemble finished dies and memory into one working accelerator, and the usual bottleneck in AI hardware supply.
High-bandwidth memory (HBM)
Stacked DRAM bonded next to a processor to feed it data fast enough, and one of the hardest parts of an AI accelerator to supply.
Energy & Power
Interconnection queue
The ordered list of generation and large-load projects waiting for permission and capacity to connect to the transmission system.
Firm power
Generation that can be relied on to deliver at a specified time, as distinct from capacity that is merely installed.
Dispatchable generation
Generation an operator can instruct up or down on demand, which is what makes a grid controllable rather than merely supplied.
Capacity factor
The ratio of energy a generator actually produced to what it would have produced running flat out over the same period.
Curtailment
Energy a generator could have produced but was instructed not to, usually because the network cannot carry it.
Transmission congestion
The condition where the network cannot carry the cheapest available power to where it is needed, so a more expensive resource runs instead.
Power purchase agreement (PPA)
A long-term contract to buy a generator's output at an agreed price, and the instrument that lets a project be financed.
Behind the meter
Generation connected directly to a load rather than to the public grid, bypassing the interconnection process at the cost of flexibility.
Power usage effectiveness (PUE)
The ratio of a data center's total power draw to the power reaching its computing equipment, and the standard efficiency measure.
Offtaker
The party that contracts to buy a plant's output, and whose commitment is what lets the plant be financed.
Small modular reactor (SMR)
A reactor design of reduced output intended to be built largely in a factory and assembled on site.
Qualification & Codes
Supplier qualification
The process of establishing that a supplier is permitted and able to provide a given component or service, repeatably.
NQA-1
The ASME quality assurance standard used for nuclear facility work, and the programme a supplier is audited against.
ASME N-stamp
An ASME Certificate of Authorization allowing a company to fabricate or install nuclear components within a defined scope.
Commercial grade dedication
The process of accepting a commercially manufactured item for safety-related nuclear use by independently verifying its critical characteristics.
ISO 19443
The international quality management standard for organisations supplying products and services important to nuclear safety.
Components & Materials
Heavy forging
Forming very large steel components from a single ingot, on presses few plants in the world operate.
Large power transformer
The high-voltage transformers that connect generation and large loads to the grid, now among the longest lead times in infrastructure.
Critical minerals
Materials designated as essential to an economy and vulnerable to supply disruption, from rare earths to gallium and graphite.
HALEU
High-assay low-enriched uranium, enriched above conventional reactor fuel and required by many advanced reactor designs.
Earth & Climate
Numerical weather prediction
Forecasting the atmosphere by integrating physical equations forward from an observed state, and the reason forecasts are a public good.
Orbital observation
Reading the state of a physical site from satellite imagery and sensing, on a cadence set by orbits rather than by disclosure.
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
Radar imaging that builds a high-resolution picture from a moving satellite, and sees through cloud and darkness.
Wet-bulb temperature
The lowest temperature reachable by evaporative cooling at a given humidity, which sets the floor for what cooling systems can achieve.
Logistics & Trade
AIS vessel tracking
The automatic identification signal ships broadcast for collision avoidance, widely used as a near real-time record of maritime movement.
Bill of lading
The shipping document naming carrier, consignee and commodity for a cargo, and one of the few records tying a movement to a buyer.
Harmonized System code
The international tariff classification for traded goods, and the key most trade data is aggregated under.
Port dwell time
How long cargo sits at a terminal between arrival and onward movement, and the most sensitive early indicator of congestion.
Maritime chokepoint
A narrow passage that a large share of world trade must transit, where disruption forces long re-routing rather than a small delay.
Long-lead item
A component whose manufacturing lead time is long enough to set the schedule of the project that needs it.
Sole source
A component or service with only one qualified supplier, so the buyer has no alternative to fall back on.
Export control
The national rules governing which technology, equipment and technical information may cross a border, and to whom.
Quantum & Cryptography
Logical qubit
An error-corrected qubit assembled from many physical ones, and the unit that actually predicts what a quantum computer can do.
Quantum error correction
Encoding quantum information redundantly so errors can be detected and corrected faster than they accumulate.
Cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC)
A quantum computer large and reliable enough to break the public-key cryptography currently protecting most internet traffic.
Post-quantum cryptography
Encryption and signature schemes designed to remain secure against an adversary holding a large quantum computer.
Harvest now, decrypt later
Recording encrypted traffic today in order to decrypt it once a quantum computer capable of breaking the encryption exists.
Crypto-agility
Building systems so the cryptographic algorithms they use can be replaced without redesigning the system around them.
Data & Intelligence
Entity resolution
Deciding when two records from different sources describe the same company, facility, shipment, or asset.
Provenance
The record of which source asserted a value and when, carried alongside the value itself rather than in a separate document.
Point-in-time data
A dataset that can be queried as it was known on a past date, rather than as it has since been revised.
Alternative data
Data about economic activity generated as a by-product of something else, used to observe the world before official figures report it.
Edge computing
Running computation at nodes geographically close to the requester rather than at one central origin, to cut the time a response takes.
Webhook
An HTTP request a service sends to your endpoint when something changes, so your system is told rather than having to keep asking.
Evidence that keeps pace with the decision.
Evaluate Nuclir against the systems, markets, and decisions that matter to your organization. The result is current intelligence with the context needed to use it responsibly.