[ RadSafe ] [Nuclear News] Drought could shut down nuclearpowerplants

[Brennan, Mike (DOH)]

Problems are always more interesting if they involve nuclear power.
Coal, oil, and natural gas all need cooling water, probably on the same
amount per unit of energy produced as with nuclear power.  Drought also
effects hydroelectric power, and I remember years in which some of the
dams couldn't generate until lake levels rose.

The same lack of comparison applies to waste and major accidents.  Spent
fuel is actually easy to isolate from the environment compared to the
things from burning coal (and I am not even including CO2 in the list).
As for bad accidents, there are a lot of dams that, if they failed
catastrophically, would kill far more people than the worst possible
reactor accident.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of neildm at id.doe.gov
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 4:35 PM
To: sandyfl at cox.net; radsafe at radlab.nl; powernet at hps1.org
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] [Nuclear News] Drought could shut down
nuclearpowerplants


 I'm sure it's not just nuclear plants with this problem.  I grew up
practically on the shore of a cooling lake for a CP&L coal fired plant
near Arden / Skyland, NC. (If you want to Google it, it's Lake Julian)
As part of an advanced Biology course in high school, we did some
studies on the lake.  I, myself, measured the temperature in a little
cove at 80 degrees F - in October! Normal water temperatures in any
other lake in the area are more like 50 - 60 even in midsummer.

Dave Neil

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of Sandy Perle
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 3:25 PM
To: radsafe at radlab.nl; powernet at hps1.org
Subject: [ RadSafe ] [Nuclear News] Drought could shut down nuclear
powerplants

Index:

Drought could shut down nuclear power plants
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