BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th July, 2019) Western Europe is boiling due to scorching temperatures, which prompt operators in the west of the continent to power down nuclear facilities for fear of them overheating river waters used to cool the reactors.
On Thursday, the heatwaves across the continent reached the blistering peak, with Paris recording a temperature of about 109F. Large swathes of Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have also set their own temperature records. Now the European cities can compete with Cairo or Singapore.
The hugely unpredictable weather was caused by the presence of the anticyclone over Western Europe. The heatwaves led to cancellations of trains, stumbled wine production in France and made people seek bathing in fountains.
However, as heatwaves roll across the continent, internet users and experts actively discuss the major topic around the unprecedented heatwaves - the fate of nuclear power stations. This leads some commentators to scare the population with titles such as "Are nuclear power plants being overheated?"
France, which has 58 nuclear reactors, has decided to temporarily curtail electricity output at several reactors to limit the heating of water which is used to keep reactors cool. Germany plans to do so at some of its reactors on Friday.
AVOIDING ENVIRONMENTAL RISK TO RIVERS
According to Etienne Dutheil, the director of the nuclear production of Electricite de France (EDF), the nuclear industry has "norms and limits to respect" and a key element in this industry is the temperature of river water.
"When the river flow is low and temperature high, during heat waves such as now, the power plants must be careful not to further destabilize the water life, already under stress. The rejected cooling water would be too hot for the balance in the river and the power plant must reduce its output or stop it altogether. That is what happens now, to avoid the environmental risk to the river," he told French media on Wednesday.
Professor Damien Ernst, an energy scientist from the University of Liege, Belgium, believes that warming rivers in France due to nuclear reactors can be a problem.
"In France or other regions, river flows are already naturally less important, but have also declined now and the water has warmed to a point that the nuclear power plant would damage the river ecosystem by rejecting cooling water to the already hot river at a higher temperature... Of course, if the water pumped is at a higher temperature, the cooling of the reactors is less efficient, and the plant management reduces production," he told Sputnik.
DELICATE PERIOD FOR NUCLEAR PLANTS
Summer is quite "a delicate period" for the nuclear industry since many plants are normally stopped for maintenance or recharge, according to Jacques Percebois, Professor of Economics at the University of Montpellier, France.
"In summer, electricity consumption is normally lower, but we see a changing trend in France: the fact that the electricity demand during heat waves increases in the direction of creating a peak in summer and not in winter, as is the case in the South of the USA for example, in Texas or California," he told Sputnik.
The summer increase in electricity consumption is caused by growing use of air conditioners, the phenomenon still relatively new in Western Europe, compared to the United States, he noted.
Thus, the EDF must be careful not to shut down all nuclear facilities at once, he warned.
"In this instance, some power plants that are situated on rivers with a low flow rate, have less flexibility in their water use, when there is a heatwave and the flow rate goes down too much, with higher temperature of the water," he said.
According to Percebois, those nuclear plants which use seawater would hardly cause any problems due to heatwaves since they cannot warm up the sea. Close attention should be paid to those facilities located on the rivers.
"It is more delicate on rivers such as the Rhone, the Loire or the Garonne, where the Golfech power plant has had to be shut down for a few days at least not to endanger life in the river," he added.
A river is an ecosystem that has its balance at a certain temperature. The life of algae, plants, and the life chain, from micro-organisms to fish, is very sensitive to pollution but also heat. Heat favors the development of algae that may deplete the water oxygen and massively kill fish.
EVEN MORE FRAGILE DUE TO GLOBAL WARMING?
The record-setting temperatures in Europe made anti-nuclear power activists speak up again and remind the population about the dangers of nuclear energy.
"The present episode shows the vulnerability of nuclear energy to extreme phenomena. This technology is not adapted anymore to our changing climate. It is made more fragile by global warming," Charlotte Mijeon, the spokeswoman of the Sortir du Nucleaire association of anti-nuclear groups told local media.
However, Jean-Louis Butre, the president of the environment group Federation Environement Durable (FED) insists that nuclear power plants do not emit CO2 and, thus, are not made vulnerable by drought conditions.
"They simply have to adapt their production to the water flow rate of the river, supplying the cooling water," he told Sputnik.
According to Butre, the world needs to keep all its energy sources that do not emit CO2 and nuclear energy is one of these sources.
"We hope that the new French minister for the environment will stop this madness of installing inefficient wind turbines everywhere, that need compensation by gas or fuel power plants when there is not enough wind," he said, referring to Elisabeth Borne who was named as the country's Ecology Minister in mid-July.
