Nuclear power is more dangerous because of climate change

Capital is considered a clean energy solution to address climate change, but in fact, nuclear power plants are very vulnerable to climate change.

Risk from flood

For safe operation, nuclear power plants need a large amount of water to cool the reactor, and need a stable source of energy to transport this water. Therefore, nuclear power plants are often built near many countries such as the coast, estuaries, while these are often the places where fluctuations in meteorology, geology and hydrology occur. Of these, storms are considered the biggest threat.

In 2008, Normal Lake (North Carolina, USA) was 30 cm below the minimum required for the standby system of the McGuire nuclear power plant.

Most of the research models identified the frequency of storms to increase due to climate change. Although storms are predictable factors, and therefore, precautions can be taken, but precautions are not always applied. As in the storm of Francis in 2004 , people forgot to close doors to protect the equipment of St Lucie Nuclear Power Plant in Florida (USA) from debris of houses and trees. If unlucky, a nuclear disaster could have happened.

Another concern is flooding . Although all nuclear power plants are designed to be able to withstand floods to some extent based on historical data, when using these data, people do not consider Climate Change. In 1999, the Blayais nuclear power plant at France's Gironde estuary was flooded due to high tide combined with strong winds, exceeding the design of the retaining walls. Consequently, two reactors were heavily affected.

Effects of heat and drought

When a record heat wave swept across Europe in 2003, 17 reactors at nuclear power plants located inland in France had to stop operating or reduce power generation capacity. These plants use river water to cool the reactor, and then discharge the used water back to the river. As a rule, discharge from plants must be low enough to not affect the flora and fauna of the river. In the heat wave of 2003, because the river water was too shallow and the temperature of the river itself was abnormally high, this condition was not met. The closure of the reactors and the purchase of electricity from foreign countries caused the French Power Company to lose more than 300 million euros.

Due to the specific dependence on cooling water, the water is the heel of Asin for nuclear power plants. In the 2008 drought, a series of reactors in the southeastern United States were at risk of inactivity due to insufficient water required for the cooling system. The survey, conducted by the AP news agency, shows that 24 out of 104 US nuclear reactors are in the areas most heavily affected by drought. Many legal wars have erupted around the use of water resources in these areas. Meanwhile, research on climate change shows that droughts will last longer and have a wider range of influences.