Nearly 60% of plants located by rivers or lakes in the continent experienced nuclear power production losses since 2017
A power plant in Budapest, Hungary. Representative photo from iStock Weather-related production losses accounted for approximately just about 0.35 per cent of global nuclear energy generation in 2022, up from 0.29 per cent five years earlier, according to the latest State of the Climate in Europe 2022.
The report by the World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service noted specifically that globally, nuclear power interruptions as a result of adverse weather conditions, only consist of a small share of total nuclear outages.
Nevertheless, the researchers said disruptions to nuclear power plants owing to extreme changes in weather conditions are on the rise, and interruptions increased over the past three decades.
The steepest inclines were seen between 2003-2006, and 2010-2018, respectively.
Nearly 60 per cent of reported weather-related nuclear production losses since 2017 were associated with plants located by rivers or lakes, the report stated, indicating they could be prone to flooding.
In a 2017 study by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), of the 61 nuclear sites evaluated, 55 experienced flooding hazards exceeding the design capacity of the plants.
Jan HaverKamp, Greenpeace International’s senior expert on nuclear energy and energy policy told Down to Earth (DTE): “This is a phenomenon we are already aware of for indeed around two decades. Last year in summer, around 10 nuclear power plants in France had to close down temporarily because of temperature limitations to their cooling water.”
Cooling towers provide an energy-efficient way to remove heat from circulating water, says the Nuclear Information Center run by American electric power company Duke Energy. Some nuclear power plants also have large, artificial lakes to cool steam back to water and not all nuclear plants have cooling towers.
In essence, nuclear power plants require huge amounts of water to prevent fission products in the core and spent nuclear fuel from overheating, says the National Resource Defense Council.
“In the past, we have seen cases where the Paks nuclear power station in Hungary had to reduce capacity because of a lack of volume in the Danube River due to drought. Something similar also has been seen in France along the Loire and the Rhone in the past,” HaverKamp told DTE.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, of the currently operating 442 reactors, 96 per cent are water-cooled, making nuclear energy the most water-intensive energy source.
The recent State of the Climate 2022 report said of the 100 Gigawatts of nuclear capacity currently under construction or planned by IAEA Member States, more than 60 per cent are located on the seacoast, so they are less affected by cooling water issues.
HaverKamp told DTE that the report does not acknowledge other risks: “We are also aware of the extra risk to coastal NPPs that were built without taking sea level rise into account. This means that the chance of flooding will increase and coastal NPPs have to increase their flood defenses when they want to prolong their operational lifetime.”
Under worsening climate scenarios in the long term, localised climate projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, particularly at the nuclear site locations, show that southern Europe could witness extreme temperatures above 40°C and an increase in consecutive drought-like conditions, the report said.
Apart from low river flows, increasing temperatures and heat extremes are the major factors, a press release reiterated.
The report, therefore underscores the necessity of establishing adaptation provisions associated with strict safety revisions.
Increasingly frequent and severe climate hazards, including the risk of simultaneous concurrent weather events, must be included in infrastructure and energy supply planning, according to the Climate Change and Nuclear Power 2022 report.
A lesson that critics cite is the lack of preparation that caused the nuclear accident that occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011. As a result of an earthquake, a tsunami disrupted the power supply and cooling of three reactors at the plant, leading to the release of radioactive material.
The Japanese parliament blamed the energy company for failing to prepare for such an event, but the court cleared the Tokyo Electric Power executives. To avoid such scenarios, the report suggested that preparation is key.
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