Antinuclear

Increasing global heatwaves mean increasing nuclear power shutdowns

Heatwaves cause problems for nuclear power plants | Climate Central, By Alyson Kenward.  11 April 11, “…...Extreme Heat Limits Nuclear Energy Production “……nuclear power has a paradoxical relationship with climate change. Even though it might help mitigate long-term global warming, nuclear power is already being challenged by rising temperatures and the increasing number of heat waves around the world. Throughout the last decade, several plants have had to reduce electricity production during heat waves, just when when electricity demand typically reaches peak levels.

“It’s a dilemma between mitigation of climate change, and adaptation to it,” says Natalie Kopytko, an energy policy doctoral student at the University of York in England. Having recently studied the ways in which climate change could have a negative impact on nuclear power, she says nuclear power is caught in the middle because it could be used to help lower greenhouse gas emissions, but global warming is making the technology less effective at providing electricity…. Heatwaves cause problems for nuclear power plants | Climate Central

April 11, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized