Heat wave shuts down nuclear reactors in Europe
Remember how nuclear power was going to save us from global warming? Heh. Funny story. As Europe has gotten, you know, warm lately, a handful of nuclear power plants have been forced to reduce or stop production. Seems the continent’s relentless heat wave has warmed the rivers that cool the reactors. Some power producers in Germany and France have been given permission to dump hot water into rivers to avoid power failures. France, which sources more than three-quarters of its electricity from nukes, has had to import power. Bruno Comby of Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy suggests that future nuke plants could cope with the problem by building bigger cooling towers or being built near the sea. That’s what you want from a solution to global warming, right? Vulnerability to heat. It just makes sense.
