3 ms·
Because reactors need a lot of water as coolant, and they were designed with assumptions about how high the temperature of the water would be, which are now bei
by Brakenshire 7y ago
Because reactors need a lot of water as coolant, and they were designed with assumptions about how high the temperature of the water would be, which are now being broken. They started building that reactor in 1982, before they understood that temperatures were in the process of rising 1.5C (up to now).
- nraynaud 7y agoThe more accurate answer is that to not cook everything downstream they are forbidden from releasing to hot a water. If the upstream is already hot, they have no margin to not cook the fish downstream so they close shop. (It’s a bit more complicated since it depends also on the River size, but the main factor is downstream temp.)
- Brakenshire 7y agoThanks for the correction.
- penagwin 7y agoAlso to add, the water doesn't have to be hot enough to literally cook fish to be an issue - a big concern is how the different micro-organisms/plants/fish/etc react to the temperature change of there normal habitat.