DEAR News Of The Area,
Nuclear power plants consume millions of litres of water per day to cool their extremely hot reactor cores.
This year summer heatwaves and falling rainfall have defeated several of Europe’s nuclear plants, forcing them to reduce power or shut down completely, and leading to an energy crisis.
One vital water source is the Danube River, which flows through 10 countries and is used for cooling reactors in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.
Water levels in the Danube have fallen to historically low levels, restricting the amount of river water available.
In Hungary, the Paks nuclear power plant was forced to shut down due to extreme heat and river levels so low that the cooling intake nozzles cannot reach the water.
Hungary lost about 50 per cent of its power generation, leading to power cuts and government calls for citizens and industry to curb electricity consumption.
Low Danube river levels also forced the shut down of Unit 1 reactor at Romania’s Cernavodă nuclear plant, triggering a state emergency. Romania will now have to import power to stabilise energy supply.
In Bulgaria, authorities warned that they may have to shut down or curtail power generation at the Kozloduy nuclear plant, due to low water levels in the Danube.
In June, France’s EDF also had to reduce power output at nuclear plants on the Seine and Rhone rivers.
As climate change and severe heatwaves increase, it will become more and more difficult to cool nuclear reactors – making them less safe and more unreliable as an energy source.
Regards,
Kenneth Higgs,
Raymond Terrace.
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