Hotter summers shut down nuclear power plants
Heat Shuts Down a Coastal Reactor NYT, By MATTHEW L. WALD A reactor at the Millstone nuclear plant in Waterford, Conn., has shut down because of something that its 1960s designers never anticipated: the water in Long Island Sound was too warm to cool it.
Under the reactor’s safety rules, the cooling water can be no higher than 75 degrees. On Sunday afternoon, the water’s temperature soared to 76.7 degrees, prompting the operator, Dominion Power, to order the shutdown of the 880-megawatt reactor.
“Temperatures this summer are the warmest we’ve had since operations began here at Millstone,’’ said a spokesman for Dominion, Ken Holt. The plant’s first reactor, now retired, began operation in 1970.
The plant’s third reactor was still running on Monday, but engineers were watching temperature trends carefully out of concern that it, too, might have to shut down….. And higher water temperatures could lie ahead. The sound’s temperature usually does not peak until late August….. Power plants in the Midwest have also experienced problems as temperatures soared in recent weeks. In some cases, reactors shut down because the cooling water was too warm; in others, the ongoing drought had shrunken the body of water from which the cooling water is drawn, and the plant’s intake pipes were above the surface.
Last month the twin-unit Braidwood nuclear plant in Illinois needed special permission to keep operating because its cooling water pond reached 102 degrees as a result of low rainfall and high air temperatures. When Braidwood opened 26 years ago, it was designed to run at temperatures up to 98 degrees. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/heat-shuts-down-a-coastal-reactor/
Nuclear power plants can’t cope with increasingly hot summers
simply getting permission to suck in hotter water does not make the problem go away..
despite a myriad of potential problems and two decades of climate warnings, it is sobering to note that none of the US reactors were built to account for any of this
[The new reactors] they are still PWRs and they still require a large reserve of cool, circulating water to keep them operating and nominally safe.
For Nuclear Power This Summer, It’s Too Darn Hot, Truth Out, 05 August 2012 By Gregg Levine, You know that expression, “Hotter than July?” Well, this July, July was hotter than July. Depending on what part of the country you live in, it was upwards of three degrees hotter this July than the 20th Century average. Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis and St. Louis are each “on a pace to shatter their all-time monthly heat records.” And “when the thermometer goes way up and the weather is sizzling hot,” as the Cole Porter song goes, demand for electricity goes way up, too….. Take, for example, Braidwood, the nuclear facility that supplies much of Chicago with electricity: Continue reading
Heat danger, even when nuclear reactors are shut down
For Nuclear Power This Summer, It’s Too Darn Hot, Truth Out, 05 August 2012 By Gregg Levine, ”……when it comes to nuclear power, as global temperatures continue to rise and water levels in rivers and lakes continue to drop, an even more disconcerting threat emerges.
When a coal plant is forced to shut down because of a lack of cool intake water, it can, in short order, basically get turned off. With no coal burning, the cooling needs of the facility quickly downgrade to zero.
A nuclear reactor, however, is never really “off.”
When a boiling water reactor or pressurized water reactor (BWR and PWR respectively, the two types that make up the total of the US commercial reactor fleet) is “shutdown” (be it in an orderly fashion or an abrupt “scram”), control rods are inserted amongst the fuel rods inside the reactor. The control rods absorb free neutrons, decreasing the number of heavy atoms getting hit and split in the fuel rods. It is that split, that fission, that provides the energy that heats the water in the reactor and produces the steam that drives the electricity-generating turbines. Generally, the more collisions, the more heat generated. An increase in heat means more steam to spin a turbine; fewer reactions means less heat, less steam and less electrical output. But it doesn’t mean no heat.
The water that drives the turbines also cools the fuel rods. It needs to circulate and somehow get cooled down when it is away from the reactor core. Even with control rods inserted, there are still reactions generating heat, and that heat needs to be extracted from the reactor or all kinds of trouble ensues–from too-high pressure breaching containment to melting the cladding on fuel rods, fires, and hydrogen explosions. This is why the term LOCA–a loss of coolant accident–is a scary one to nuclear watchdogs (and, theoretically, to nuclear regulators, too).
So, even when they are not producing electricity, nuclear reactors still need cooling. They still need a power source to make that cooling happen, and they still need a coolant, which, all across the United States and most of the rest of the world, means water. http://truth-out.org/news/item/10707-for-nuclear-power-this-summer-its-too-darn-hot
Secrecy in USA on nuclear plants affected by hot weather
For Nuclear Power This Summer, It’s Too Darn Hot, Truth Out, 05 August 2012 By Gregg Levine, “……..Water that is increasingly growing too warm or too scarce. . . at least in the summer. . . you know, when it’s hot. . . and demand for electricity increases.
In fact, Braidwood is not the only US plant that has encountered problems this sultry season:
[A] spokeswoman for the Midwest Independent System Operator, which operates the regional grid, said that another plant had shut down because its water intake pipes were now above the water level of the body from which it draws its cooling water. Another is “partially curtailed.”
That spokeswoman can’t, it seems, tell us which plants she is talking about because that information “is considered competitive.” (Good to know that the Midwest Independent System Operator has its priorities straight. . . . Hey, that sounds like a hint! Anyone in the Midwest notice a nearby power plant curtailing operations?)
So, not isolated. . . and also not a surprise–not to the Nature Climate Change people this year, and not to the industry, itself. . . 17 years ago. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a non-profit group of scientists and engineers funded by the good folks who generate electricity (a group that has a noticeable overlap with the folks that own nuclear plants), released a study in 1995 that specifically warned of the threat a warming climate posed to electrical generation. The EPRI study predicted that rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide would make power production less efficient and more expensive, while at the same time increasing demand.
And climate predictions have only grown more dire since then….. http://truth-out.org/news/item/10707-for-nuclear-power-this-summer-its-too-darn-hot
Conservative USA think tank finds that human changed climate is real!
Climate results turn sceptic: ‘let the evidence change our minds’ The Age July 30, 2012, Leo Hickman THE Earth’s land has warmed by 1.5 degrees Celsius in the past 250 years and ”humans are almost entirely the cause”, according to a scientific study set up to address climate sceptic concerns about whether human-induced global warming is occurring. Richard Muller, a climate sceptic physicist who founded the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) project, said he was ”surprised” by the findings. ”We were not expecting this, but as scientists, it is our duty to let the evidence change our minds.”
He said he considered himself a ”converted sceptic” and his views had received a ”total turnaround” in a short space of time. ”Our results show that the average temperature of the Earth’s land has risen by 2½ degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years, including an increase of 1½ degrees over the most recent 50 years.
Moreover, it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases,”Professor Muller wrote in an opinion piece for The New York Times.
The team of scientists based at the University of California, Berkeley, gathered and merged 14.4 million land temperature observations from 44,455 sites across the world dating back to 1753. Previous datasets created by NASA, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Britain’s Meteorological Office and the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit had gone back only to the mid-1800s and used five times fewer weather station records.
The funding for the project included $US150,000 from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, set up by the billionaire US coal magnate who is a key backer of the climate sceptic Heartland Institute think tank. http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-results-turn-sceptic-let-the-evidence-change-our-minds-20120730-23769.html#ixzz229AhMmUv
Sound and fury, but not science, behind UK’s anti wind energy lobby
But ‘the biggest threat to our valued landscapes is climate change. Onshore wind is the cheapest source of low-carbon power, and restricting its development would jeopardise our firm commitment to offer value for money to the consumer, as well as green energy.
Bashing wind, Environmental Rsearch, 28 July 12 A new report from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) says on-land wind projects can threaten the ‘beauty and tranquility of much-loved landscapes.’… Continue reading
Climate change – summer heat damaging production of nuclear power
“Heat is the main issue, because if the river is getting warmer the water going into the plant is warmer and makes it harder to cool,” David McIntyre, an NRC spokesman, said……
As long as the heat persists, Saunders of Gelber & Associates expects nuclear supply to stay low while demand continues to climb.
Heat Sends U.S. Nuclear Power Production To 9-Year Low Bloomberg, By Christine Harvey – Jul 26, 2012 Nuclear-power production in the U.S. is at the lowest seasonal levels in nine years as drought and heat force reactors from Ohio to Vermont to slow output.
Generation for the 104 plants in the U.S. fell 0.4 percent from yesterday to 94,171 megawatts, or 93 percent of capacity, the lowest level for this time of year since 2003, according to reports from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and data compiled by Bloomberg. The total is down 2.6 percent from the five-year average for today of 96,725 megawatts. We’ve had a fast decay of summer output this month and that corresponds to the high heat and droughts,” Pax Saunders, an analyst at Gelber & Associates in Houston, said. “Plants are not able to operate at the levels they can.”…. Continue reading
Summer heat brings state of emergency to Missouri
Missouri declares state of emergency due to heat, drought Jul 23, 2012 (Reuters) – The governor of Missouri on Monday declared a state of emergency due to the drought and prolonged severe heat of this summer, which has so far been blamed in the deaths of 25 people in the state.
“The high temperatures and dry conditions across the state are taking their toll on Missourians,” Governor Jay Nixon said in a statement. “Our farmers are suffering tremendous losses in crops and livestock, and we’re seeing more heat-related deaths and emergency room visits, particularly among seniors.”…. http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL2E8INJ2G20120723
(but Governor Nixon still thinks that nuclear reactors will be OK in the heat?)
Young Americans not well educated? Ignorance about Climate Change
“Most Generation Xers are surprisingly disengaged, dismissive or doubtful about whether global climate change is happening “
“The results of this report suggest that better educated young adults are more likely to recognize the importance of the problem”
Uninformed Generation X are unconcerned about climate change, Click Green, 19 July 12, As the United States suffers a summer of record-shattering heat and the UK experiences record summer rainfall, a University of Michigan report finds that Generation X is lukewarm about climate change – uninformed about the causes and unconcerned about the potential dangers Continue reading
Nuclear power not the fix for global warming: it’s the other way around!
Nationally, thousands of daily high temperature records and warm overnight low temperature records have been set this summer.
With global warming already increasing the odds of extreme heat events, the challenges faced at Braidwood and Browns Ferry are likely to become more common in the coming years. It’s an open question as to whether the nuclear industry is prepared for this. As the Union of Concerned Scientists‘ David Lochbaum told the Times, “Nuclear plants like Goldilocks weather — not too hot, not too cold, but just right.”
Such weather is getting harder and harder to come by.
Heat and Drought Pose Risks for Nuclear Power Plants, Climate Central July 18th, 2012, By Andrew Freedman ”…….. it seems that climate change is increasingly causing problems for operators of nuclear plants. Like coal-fired power plants, nuclear facilities use large amounts of water for cooling purposes. After water has cycled through the plant, it is discharged back into a nearby waterway, usually a lake or a river, at a higher temperature. State regulations prohibit nuclear plants from operating once water temperatures go above a certain threshold, in part because it could compromise the safe operation of the facility, and also because discharging very warm water can kill fish and other marine life. Continue reading
Ski resorts taking climate change seriously, going to renewable energy
Ski resorts go renewable U.S. ski resorts tap renewable energy sources to combat climate change Action Sports July 13, 2012, By Jesse Huffman As the volatility of the 2011-12 season made clear, the stake ski resort’s have in resolving climate change is a big one. Over the past three years, resorts like Bolton , Burke , Jiminy Peak and Grouse Mountain have installed wind turbines, while others have pursued efficiency updates, in an effort to take responsibly produce, and reduce, the power and heat involved in swinging chairs and heating lodges all winter long. Now, four more areas, from local ski hills in the Northeast to major resorts in the Rockies, have installed or invested in renewable power sources ranging from solar to biomass to coalmine methane.
Smuggler’s Notch closed early this winter after a spring meltdown saw the highest March temperatures in Vermont’s history. The same solar energy that drove skiers and riders batty as it took away their snow is now being put to use by an array of 35 solar trackers, which collectively produce 205,000 kWh per year — around five percent of Smuggler’s total electrical use. The array provides enough juice for most of the resort’s Village Lodge. Continue reading
Court judgment makes USA, not Australia, the leader in cutting carbon emissions
Three judges –two Democrats and one Republican – upheld the EPA’s right to regulate greenhouse emissions under the Clean Air Act.
Result? No new coal-fired power stations! Under the Clean Air Act, carbon emissions are limited to 1,000 pounds of CO2 per MW hour of power produced.
the United States has pledged a much more responsible cut of 17 per cent by 2020,
EPA Clean Air to end coal in the US http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/epa-clean-air-to-end-coal-in-the-us/ 4 July, 2012 Last week, in a milestone announcement that went largely unreported in Australia, the US Court of Appeals upheld the EPA’s right to regulate greenhouse emissions under the Clean Air Act. Today is the 4th July and Independent Australia believes this decision is cause to celebrate. Environment editor Sandi Keane reports. Continue reading
USA experiencing ‘brutal’, unprecedented heat wave
the center of the country will experience high temperatures for the next several weeks, possibly into August.
More than 2,000 heat records matched or broken http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/65842 5 July 12, Joseph O’Leary More than 2,000 temperature records have been matched or broken in the past week as a brutal heat wave baked much of the United States, and June saw more than 3,200 records topped, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Monday. Continue reading
Climate change – hot weather is bad for nuclear reactors
Hot weather, hot water pose challenges for TVA nuclear, local utilities
By Brian Lawson, The Huntsville Times , June 30, 2012, “…. Browns Ferry’s operator, the Tennessee Valley Authority, faces the same paradox every summer: the plants are designed to help meet the valley’s power demand amid the swelter, but when it gets too hot the plants may have to scale back. Under TVA’s water discharge permits with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, the water temperature downstream from the plant cannot be higher than upstream when the water reaches a temperature of 90 degrees….. David Lochbaum, a former engineer at Browns Ferry who now works with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said last week that nuclear power plants are about 33 percent efficient, so two-thirds of the waste heat they generate has to be cooled using water. Lochbaum said increasingly hot water in the Tennessee River places another potential burden on Browns Ferry operations.
Lochbaum was part of a conference call last week with area environmental advocates who said electricity generation poses an ongoing strain on water resources, especially in times of drought or the reduced rainfall levels being experienced in North Alabama this year.
A study by the River Network, released last week, found that it takes on average 40,000 gallons of fresh water to produce a megawatt of electricity. The water is used, polluted or consumed in making the electricity, said Wendy Wilson, national director of the River Network’s energy and climate programs.
Climate change: global sea level rise is uneven: USA’s East coast to cop it big
US East Coast a ‘hot spot’ for sea level rise: study http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/65757 by Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent 26-Jun-12 Sea levels from Cape Hatteras to Cape Cod are rising at a faster pace
than anywhere on Earth, making coastal cities and wetlands in this densely-populated U.S. corridor possibly more vulnerable to flooding and damage, researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
Climate change is causing higher sea levels around the world, as land-based glaciers like those on Greenland melt and slide into the oceans and as warming ocean water expands.
But seas don’t rise at the same rate, and for 600 miles along the U.S. Atlantic coast, the water is rising more rapidly than elsewhere on the globe, USGS scientists reported on Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change. In this “hot spot” of rising sea levels, variations in ocean currents and sea water temperature and salinity push oceans upward along the
coastline, the scientists said.
It could have an impact on some of the biggest urban areas along and near the East Coast, including Boston, Providence, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Norfolk-Virginia Beach, especially when storm surges push water inland. Continue reading
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