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Climate change is not friendly to water hungry nuclear power stations

Ars Technica 26th July 2017,Unless you work at a coal, gas, or nuclear plant, you may not think about
water when you think about electricity (certainly at a household level;
they don’t mix). But water plays an important part in cooling many power
plants, and many power plants also depend on a nearby water source to
create steam that drives turbines.

So the availability of water for power production is a serious consideration. Not enough water? That power plant
could have to shut down. If the water isn’t chilly enough to cool the
plant? Same problem.

In a paper published in Nature Energy this week, a
group of researchers from the Netherlands estimated how water availability
would affect coal, gas, and nuclear plants in the European Union out to
2030. The researchers took into account a changing climate that will likely
make water reserves scarcer and warmer,

but they also accounted for
progressive renewable energy policies in EU member countries, which are
already prompting some thermoelectric plants to retire in favor of wind and
solar (which need negligible amounts of water to operate).  https://arstechnica.co.uk/science/2017/07/a-potential-climate-change-consequence-not-enough-cool-water-for-power-plants/

July 28, 2017 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general