nuclear-news

As the Earth heats, nuclear power plants can’t cope

 the problem is only getting worse as climate change triggers prolonged heat waves, ….hot river and lake temperatures have forced power plants worldwide to decrease generating capacity.

Heat Waves Putting Pressure on Nuclear Power’s Outmoded Cooling Technologies, REUTERS By Lisa Song at SolveClimate,  May 4, 2011  The scramble to cool the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex with seawater in the aftermath of Japan’s disastrous accident put a spotlight on just how much cold water an atomic reactor needs to function — and not just in a crisis.

All existing nuclear plants use vast amounts of water as a coolant. But in recent years — often far from the public eye — hot river and lake temperatures have forced power plants worldwide to decrease generating capacity.

Experts say the problem is only getting worse as climate change triggers prolonged heat waves, prompting calls for changes in siting processes.

……….The U.S. Department of Energy is part of an international team working to design the next generation of nuclear plants — some of which will use less water than traditional plants. But the project faces numerous challenges such as cost and implementation barriers, and the DOE anticipates that the generation IV reactors will not be commercially available for at least two decades.

……Preliminary data from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), an environmental and nuclear watchdog group based in Cambridge, Mass., shows that seven nuclear units at five facilities had to reduce generating capacity due to warm waters on at least 15 occasions between May and September 2010. The plants were in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Georgia. While such incidents didn’t affect plant safety, they posed economic risk and decreased power availability.

In one case, which did not appear in the UCS database, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Browns Ferry station near Athens, Ala., lost over $50 million dollars when it was forced to run at half capacity for eight weeks last summer, passing the price surge to customers.

During a blistering heat wave in Europe in 2003, France cut 4,000 megawatts of nuclear power — the equivalent of shutting down four power plants — at a time when demand for air conditioning was at its highest…..http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/04/idUS163919996420110504

May 5, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change