Heatwave shuts down nuclear power plants

by Juliette Jowit and Javier Espinoza

The Observer, Sunday July 30, 2006

The European heatwave has forced nuclear power plants to reduce or halt production. The weather, blamed for deaths and disruption across much of the continent, has caused dramatic rises in the temperature of rivers used to cool the reactors, raising fears of mass deaths for fish and other wildlife.

Spain shut down the Santa Maria de Garona reactor on the River Ebro, one of the country's eight nuclear plants which generate a fifth of its national electricity. Reactors in Germany are reported to have cut output, and others in Germany and France have been given special permits to dump hot water into rivers to avoid power failures. France, where nuclear power provides more than three quarters of electricity, has also imported power to prevent shortages.

The problems have come to light just weeks after Britain declared it will build a new generation of nuclear power stations, prompting opponents to claim the crisis proved nuclear reactors - although they emit no carbon dioxide greenhouse gases - are not the solution to the problem of global warming.

'The main problem they have is: How are they going to expand nuclear power when they are so vulnerable to such things as global temperature?' said Shaun Burnie, Greenpeace International's nuclear specialist.

But Bruno Comby, president of Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy, said future power stations could have bigger cooling towers, or be built near the sea. 'The big problem the earth is facing today is global warming, it's not a one-degree local increase in [the temperature of] a river,' he added.

The heatwave in Britain appeared to break last week, with the Met Office forecasting more normal summer weather this week. Today London and south-east England face a repeat of last week's heavy rains; for the rest of the week the country is expected to alternate between sunny spells, with warm temperatures and showers.

However, hotter weather is set to return. 'We could be looking at some very warm weather coming back towards next weekend,' said meteorologist Andrew Sibley.

Last week a series of power cuts in central London prompted fears of regular blackouts as global temperatures are predicted to keep rising, bringing more long, hot summers. EDF, the capital's main electricity supplier, said the problems were caused by a 'very unusual' combination of several faults and huge demand for air-conditioning.

'Over the weekend, our engineers are working round the clock to maintain power supplies to the area and avoid any further interruptions,' a company official said.

Network Rail, the main rail infrastructure operator, said fewer speed restrictions were expected in cooler temperatures, although track temperatures can rise to 20C above the air temperature on hot days.

Source : http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1833620,00.html