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As global temperatures rise, there will be expensive nuclear plant shutdowns

the prolonged spell of hot weather put the TVA at risk of violating environmental permits, with hefty fines as one consequence and potential harm to the Tennessee River ecosystem as another…..The total cost of the lost power over that time? More than $50 million dollars, all of which was paid for by TVA’s customers in Tennessee….. What happened last summer at Browns Ferry may be a sign of what people living in the Southeast can expect in the future. As average global temperatures rise,

Heatwaves cause problems for nuclear power plants | Climate Central, By Alyson Kenward,  11 April 11, On July 8, 2010, as the temperature in downtown Decatur, Alabama climbed to a sweltering 98°F, operators at the Browns Ferry nuclear power plant a few miles outside of town realized they had only one option to avoid violating their environmental permit: turn down the reactors. For days, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which owns the nuclear plant, had kept a watchful eye on the rising mercury, knowing that more heat outside could spell trouble inside the facility. When the Tennessee River, whose adjacent waters are used to cool the reactors, finally hit 90°F and forced Browns Ferry to run at only half of their regular power output, the TVA hoped the hot spell would last just a few days.
Eight weeks of unrelenting heat later, the plant was still running at half its capacity, robbing the grid of power it desperately needed when electicity demand from air conditions and fans was at its peak. The total cost of the lost power over that time? More than $50 million dollars, all of which was paid for by TVA’s customers in Tennessee. ……

What happened in northern Alabama last summer, at the largest of TVA’s nuclear power plants, did not present a human safety concern. Operators knew there was never a risk of an explosion or nuclear meltdown, nor was there a threat of leaking radioactive material. But the prolonged spell of hot weather put the TVA at risk of violating environmental permits, with hefty fines as one consequence and potential harm to the Tennessee River ecosystem as another.

It’s not the first time high temperatures have affected the performance of the Browns Ferry plant, and extreme heat is a growing concern for power plant operators across the Southeast. While some nuclear plants can improve their cooling procedures to cope with the intake of warmer water, the upgrades can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and still don’t offer an indefinite defense against extreme heat. Because scientists say the Southeast (like many other parts of the world) can expect to see more frequent and intense heat waves by the end of this century, the problems for nuclear power and the people that rely on it for electricity may only be beginning……..

Heat Waves are on the Rise

What happened last summer at Browns Ferry may be a sign of what people living in the Southeast can expect in the future. As average global temperatures rise, studies show the risk of heat waves also increases. New research suggests extreme heat will become a more regular occurrence across the U.S..

“One of the things that is happening is that the heat wave season, the time over which heat waves might occur, is actually getting longer,” says Kenneth Kunkel, a climate scientist from the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites in North Carolina. “Consequently, you can get heat waves a lot earlier in the year, and the season can also extend a lot longer.”

Kunkel and his colleagues have recently modeled the future of heat waves across the United States, depending on what global greenhouse gas emissions are like during the rest of this century. In the Southeast, they found that by 2100, every year there could be between 60 and 80 more days with heat wave-level temperatures …
Heatwaves cause problems for nuclear power plants | Climate Central

April 11, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, USA