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Can nuclear power stand the heat of a warming world?

Can nuclear power stand the heat?, THE HUFFINGTON POST Kyle Rabin:  June 28, 2010, It’s worth noting that plant owners have played the “climate change” or “clean energy” cards to justify why they should be allowed to operate their nuclear power plants beyond their original 40-year permits. Of course, serious doubts have been raised about nuclear power’s role in confronting the planet’s changing climate, not the least of which is the vulnerability of some plants to drought and higher water temperatures. If water levels fall too low, the submerged intake pipes will not be able to withdraw the amount of water required for safe operation of the plant. In a different scenario, if temperatures in the water body from which a plant withdraws are not cool enough, the amount of electricity the plant can produce could be reduced or the plant could be forced to shut down. That was the case in France during the Summer of 2009, when the French utility EDF had to shut down one-third of its reactors because the cooling water being withdrawn was too warm. The heat waves of 2003, 2006, and 2007 produced this effect on reactors around the world.

Drought and heat waves in the United States and other countries have highlighted one of nuclear power’s most intractable vulnerabilities: water scarcity. If too much of our “climate change mitigation” strategy depends on nuclear power, we run the risk of jeopardizing our ability to slow the rate of climate change, (not to mention perpetuating the legacy of radioactive waste and pollution associated with nuclear power). When it comes to meeting our nation’s energy needs in an environmentally-sustainable manner, we must solve the climate and water crises together, or risk exacerbating them both.

Kyle Rabin: Water Scarcity: Nuclear Power’s Achilles’ Heel

June 29, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change | antinuclear, climate change, global warming, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, reactors, uranium