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Hot Weather Cuts French, German Nuclear Power Output

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday July 27 2019, @04:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the sous-vide-rivers dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Scorching temperatures across Europe coupled with prolonged dry weather has reduced French nuclear power generation by around 5.2 gigawatts (GW) or 8%, French power grid operator RTE’s data showed on Thursday.

Electricity output was curtailed at six reactors by 0840 GMT on Thursday, while two other reactors were offline, data showed. High water temperatures and sluggish flows limit the ability to use river water to cool reactors.

In Germany, PreussenElektra, the nuclear unit of utility E.ON, said it would take its Grohnde reactor offline on Friday due to high temperatures in the Weser river.

Interesting impact of the recent heat wave, right when electrical demand is on the rise.

Previously: Records Tumble as Europe Swelters in Heatwave and the Forecast Isn't Any Better

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by fennec on Saturday July 27 2019, @06:59PM (4 children)

    by fennec (7053) on Saturday July 27 2019, @06:59PM (#872053)

    There are 58 reactors in France, reducing 8% is nothing, it just means they sell less to other countries.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by quietus on Sunday July 28 2019, @02:26PM (3 children)

    by quietus (6328) on Sunday July 28 2019, @02:26PM (#872301) Journal
    Indeed, but it could be an indication of future problems. Of the 19 sites in total, only 5 are cooled by seawater. The other sites are located [world-nuclear.org] inland, and cooled by river water which, if we have a trend here, might face an increasing number of shutdowns as the [riverwater] temperature increases.

    • (Score: 1) by fennec on Sunday July 28 2019, @04:52PM (2 children)

      by fennec (7053) on Sunday July 28 2019, @04:52PM (#872328)

      Sure, it does not mean there is nothing to do, nuclear needs to be phased out and replaced by wind and solar.

      • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Sunday July 28 2019, @06:15PM

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Sunday July 28 2019, @06:15PM (#872358)

        Wind doesn't blow all the time, and not enough to be usable in many locations. Solar doesn't work half the time (it's called "nighttime"). So unless you have a really great storage system able to store GW-hours of power, they won't provide power all the times you need it. Nuclear is a good baseload power source that these sources just can't compete with, and it's a lot cleaner and less polluting than any fossil fuel. However, nuclear does have problems with hot weather as we see here due to its cooling needs, so more solar capacity is a good idea since people want more A/C in hot weather, mostly during the daytime, which is not coincidentally when you have the most sunlight available.

      • (Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Monday July 29 2019, @12:59AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday July 29 2019, @12:59AM (#872480) Journal

        Sure, it does not mean there is nothing to do, nuclear needs to be phased out and replaced by wind and solar.

        Or you could add additional cooling infrastructure so it can work in hot weather. For example, a nuclear plant doesn't have to dump heat straight to a river.