EDF has halted four nuclear reactors at three power plants in France because of the current heatwave affecting Europe, a spokesman for the utility said on Saturday.
High temperatures registered in the Rhone and Rhine rivers, from which the three power plants pump their water for cooling, led to a temporary shutdown of the reactors, the spokesman said.
The Associated Press story at The Reading Eagle explains that excessive heat is harmful to fish.
(Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday August 06 2018, @11:41PM (2 children)
For reasons I've never had the first clue about, gases are more soluble in _cold_ water. Consider that it is said that when the abundant cod fishery of the North Atlantic's Grand Banks was discovered, the cod were so numerous that you could walk on them.
Likely an exaggeration, but I do know that cod _thrive_ in the coldest of seawater.
For water to get to warm leads all the fish to asphyxiate. A few years ago there were mass fish kills in Oregon's Willamette River. I expect that to happen again sometime soon.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 07 2018, @12:28AM
What we call "heat" is basically the average amount of kinetic energy the atoms that make up an object have. When objects are hot, they have more kinetic energy and move around more. For a gas to come out of a solution of water, the molecule has to have enough kinetic energy to break out of the solution. Therefore, when liquids are hot, it is more likely for the gas atoms and molecules to get enough energy to escape.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 07 2018, @05:03AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry%27s_law#Temperature_dependence [wikipedia.org]