Heat Wave Shows Unexpected Limits of Nuclear Energy

[Dems Will Win]

No one thought of it. In all the PR campaigns the nuke industry has cooked up since 2000 for nuclear power as an environmentally friendly "clean" energy (pay no attention to those glowing fuel rods in the pool), in all the enviro responses to it, no one realized that in the droughts caused by global warming, nukes would have to SHUT DOWN due to the lack of cool water from dried-up rivers.

Uh-oh.

The "grownups" who direct the nuclear power industry never thought of this either and so situated the plants on rivers to draw the millions of gallons needed to cool the huge super-hot reactors.

Now Europe, in the grip of a 4-year drought that scientists just realized is part of a GLOBAL heat wave, is facing potential blackouts as a new heat wave approaches this weekend. This is especially true in Spain and France, as one reactor supplying 20% of Spain's electricity is now shut down, while France is already having to import 2000 MW a day to avoid a blackout.

In France, nuclear scientist Hubert Reeves urged the government to "invest massively" in renewable energy resources. "We are behind many of our European partners such as Germany, Denmark and Spain in this matter, and cannot wait until the energy crisis reaches its climax to find an alternative to our present model," he told IPS.

A crisis, he said, "is round the corner." Fossil energy sources are about to be exhausted, and "nuclear technology will not solve present problems within a reasonable period of time. We should abandon nuclear power and invest in alternative sources."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34121

The French, the dirtiest nuclear power polluters in the Western world, have decided to cook the fish and the fauna in the rivers by letting the power company release extra hot water. Otherwise they already would be having blackouts.

For many years now, French authorities have defended nuclear power arguing that it is clean energy, good for the environment, and that it will help combat global warming, for it does not emit greenhouse gases," Stephane Lhomme, coordinator of the environmental network Sortir du Nucléaire (Phase Out Nuclear Power) told IPS.

"Now, with global warming leading to extreme hot summers, we are witnessing that it is the other way round," Lhomme said. "Global warming is showing the limits of nuclear power plants, and nuclear power is destroying our environment."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34121

Btw, retrofitting heat exchangers on the nukes would seem a good idea but unfortunately they don't work well with such massive amounts of water, especially on days with hot air temperature, and need electricity to cool the water. Besides the water level is dropping so low the water is simply no longer there--and at the same time water tables have plunged in the drought areas. The physics and economics of heat exchangers don't add up for massive use in huge nukes.

37 out of France's 58 nukes are situated on rivers. Hmmm. I've got a bad feeling about this.

And as the esteemed NNadir pointed out, it's not just nukes, the fossil fuel plants have to close and shut down too. But the point here is that we now have proof that nuclear power CANNOT be a solution to global warming.

That's because global warming will increase droughts, which dry and heat up the rivers and nukes and steam plants need cool water or... THEY SHUT DOWN.

Generating capacity of a shut-down nuclear power plant? ZERO.

Hmm. That doesn't compute, even with nuke industry fuzzy math.

Here's the list of powered down or shut-down reactors:

Isar 1 near Munich - authorised to drain hotter water into the nearby rivers than normally allowed

Neckarwestheim near Stuttgart - authorised to drain hotter water into the nearby rivers than normally allowed.

Spain, Santa Maria de Garoña (provides provides 20 percent of Spain's electricity!) - shut down last weekend due to the high temperatures recorded in the river Ebro.

Reactor Kruemmel - river Elbe, slowed down.

Reactor Brunsbuettel - river Elbe, slowed down.

Reactor Brokdorf - river Elbe, slowed down.

ALSO: Traditional fossil fuel power - river Rhine, slowed down.

-snip-

German energy expert Hermann Scheer says the situation shows a need for radical change in policy. "We must massively invest in renewable energy sources, and get rid of nuclear power as soon as possible,"

-snip -

Nukes the Answer to Global Warming - NOT. No Nukes is Good Nukes...

[Rex]

1. Natue 1 - Our 'War against Nature' 0

The planet would never change! Nukclear power is safe! Peace at any cost!

[Dems Will Win]

2. Our War on Terra Has Been Won!!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

This is like the time the nuke-nuts tried to get a nuclear jet plane funded so they flew all these jets around with live reactors in them just to show they could get off the ground and that the crew would survive with special lead lining and never being allowed to go in the back of the aircraft where the reactor was cooking away.

They may be stupid--but they are also crazy!

[Dems Will Win]

3. We need to get rid of coal as well

Put our cars on electric energy, the new electric cars will run on several thousand laptop batteries and get around 150 miles to the charge! Charge them at night and no new plants or additional fuel is needed.


The world's biggest free lunch is off-peak amps and capacity at night from the base load plants. 30% extra capacity going wasted tonight and every night.

The new wind is 25% more efficient, there's 400 Gigawatts worldwide of hydro and micro hydro, there's enough wind to poiwer the world several times over.

The new concentrating solar photovoltaics is 40% efficient running at 400 Suns with 640 Megawatts per Square mile. 40 solar farms of 10 square miles each, spread around the country, would give the US 250 Gigawatts (on sunny days). Get 20 GW from existing dams, 5 GW from silicon panels, 25 GW from wind and that's 300 GW of renewable energy, added to the 100 GW of existing hydro, so you have 400 MW.

Now add 100 GW of the new tidal power machines--which really pump out the juice--and you have 500 GW renewable. Well the total installed capacity of the US is over 900 GW. 20-25 years, if we focus like a laser beam. Now shave off 100 GW through conservation and new efficiency.

Hmm. There's now only a 300 GW gap on a sunny day and we were able to shut down nearly all of the coal and and also reduce either the natural gas or the nuclear power plants.

What I'm trying to say is the energy equation just changed in 2005 and 2006 because of breakthroughs in renewable technology. The basic numbers are above, and with the new wind and the new CPV, it's suddenly possible to do renewable economically and in large wind farms and solar farms.

WE DON'T HAVE AN ENERGY SHORTAGE, WE HAVE A SHORTAGE OF UNCORRUPTED LEADERS, A SHORTAGE OF WILL--IT'S A LEADERSHIP CRISIS, NOT AN ENERGY CRISIS.

THE NEXT PRESIDENT MUST DECLARE AN ENERGY EMERGENCY AND PUT THE NATION ON A WAR FOOTING. RATION ENERGY SOMEHOW. MAKE PEOPLE CONSERVE, MAKE THEM FEEL UNPATRIOTIC, EVEN INHUMAN WITH ADVERTISING. AMERICANS ARE HIGHLY PROGRAMMABLE <rant off>

[Rex]

4. With the changes, I can't see why we wouldn't go to solar power.

The Sun gives us endless energy, yet we don't exploit it in the way we really could. Then again, shiny pretty things are no fun. If you make POWER, you have to have some manly big thing, like HUGE DAMS and Ultra kewl nuclear power! Big! Manly like a whopper! Ohhhh...shiny, pretty things...

[peacebird]

5. i have 18 shiny, pretty things - they're solar panels on my roof!

:toast:

[Rex]

6. Awesome!

:thumbsup:

[Dems Will Win]

7. kick

[survivor999]

8. Well, in case of drought...

Hydroelectric plants shut down too, no?

In any case, could the heat generated by a heat wave actually be used to produce electric energey ultimately used to cool off homes (in addition to direct photovoltaic conversion, of course)?