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> Didn't France very recently have to shut down or limit a bunch of reactors due to <checks notes> the river water being too warm. Because of environmental lim

> Didn't France very recently have to shut down or limit a bunch of reactors due to <checks notes> the river water being too warm. Because of environmental limits to protect the river ecosystems, not because of any safety or operational constraints. Many of these limits were set years ago, when the water temperature in rivers was lower, and haven't been increased since - leading to very tight margins. When the grid is stretched, the plant operators usually get a temporary authorization to exceed the environmental limits. Every year this is big news for some reason, even though it amounts to a roughly 0.3% reduction of yearly electricity generation. It only impacts river cooled plants, and only those that don't also have a cooling tower.

stephenr 3y ago
> Because of environmental limits to protect the river ecosystems So what you're saying is, nuke plants can operate in any weather if you give zero fucks about how they affect nature..?
- spullara 3y ago
  Yes. If you care more about warm water over killing people, carbon emissions and pollution.
  - fodkodrasz 3y ago
    Killing wildlife would be okay? Wow we saved some carbon emission (so it can wasted somewhere else...) and saved some lives (i don't see the connection you are implying), so now we can live in a barren land with plenty energy. We have already done a lot of harm to the environment, we should try to preserve as much as possible of what is left. (And this goes for hydro especially, and somewhat for solar and wind as well, all have environmental impacts, which must be taken into account and sensible compromises need to be made).
    - lupusreal 3y ago
      [dead]
- mpweiher 3y ago
  Nope. This affects all thermal plants, it has nothing to do with nuclear. And as the parent pointed out, it only affects plants where you cheap out and skip building the otherwise required cooling towers. So it’s trivially solvable: build cooling towers.
- fodkodrasz 3y ago
  They can, if they are designed and built for those weather conditions in mind. Cooling towers are more expensive but could work in the mentioned case.

stephenr 3y ago

> Because of environmental limits to protect the river ecosystems So what you're saying is, nuke plants can operate in any weather if you give zero fucks about how they affect nature..?

spullara 3y ago
Yes. If you care more about warm water over killing people, carbon emissions and pollution.
- fodkodrasz 3y ago
  Killing wildlife would be okay? Wow we saved some carbon emission (so it can wasted somewhere else...) and saved some lives (i don't see the connection you are implying), so now we can live in a barren land with plenty energy. We have already done a lot of harm to the environment, we should try to preserve as much as possible of what is left. (And this goes for hydro especially, and somewhat for solar and wind as well, all have environmental impacts, which must be taken into account and sensible compromises need to be made).
  - lupusreal 3y ago
    [dead]
mpweiher 3y ago
Nope. This affects all thermal plants, it has nothing to do with nuclear. And as the parent pointed out, it only affects plants where you cheap out and skip building the otherwise required cooling towers. So it’s trivially solvable: build cooling towers.
fodkodrasz 3y ago
They can, if they are designed and built for those weather conditions in mind. Cooling towers are more expensive but could work in the mentioned case.