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Water use by nuclear power plants – another climate change problem

 Millstone shutdown is a sign of broader power problem caused by climate change, CT Mirror, September 24, 2012, By Jan Ellen Spiegel  …..   Water consumption   – some view raising the plant’s operating temperature as a Band-Aid for the real problem — the amount of water the nation’s 19,000 power generating units, including 104 nuclear ones, use. They consume 100 billion gallons a day — three times what cascades over Niagara Falls in the same time frame.

“U.S. power plants are at risk from not enough water due to situations like drought, too much water because of sea level rise and flooding, or water that is simply too warm,” said Steve Fleischli, acting director of the Natural Resources Defense Council‘s water and climate program. “From our perspective, what power plants can do to protect the grid is not rely so much on water.”

Most of the cooling water is returned to its source and then re-used, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which documents fresh- and saltwater use every five years. Since 1965 most water withdrawals have gone for thermo-electric power generation. In 2005 (2010 data is not available yet), that figure was 40 percent nationally.

But in Connecticut it’s 82 percent. Among freshwater withdrawals, 24 percent goes to power plants. Of the saltwater withdrawals here, 99 percent goes to power plants.

At Millstone, Unit 2 uses 450,000 gallons of water per minute, and Unit 3 uses twice that amount. Coal plants like that in Bridgeport, which also takes its water from Long Island Sound, withdraw nearly the same amount of water as nuclear plants per megawatt hour. Gas and oil plants — similar in their water needs — require less than nuclear and coal. Conventional plants, however, generally can use warmer water than nuclear plants because without radiation concerns, their safety systems are less critical…… http://www.ctmirror.org/story/17512/millstone-shutdown-sign-broader-water-power-conflicts-climate-change

October 1, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, water