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Hungary nuclear plant cuts output because of warm Danube waters

reuters.com

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Re: Hungary nuclear plant cuts output because of warm Danube waters

#11

Post by dgellow »

Filligree wrote: post #4
manwithaplan wrote: post #2

> the temperature of the Danube, whose water is used to cool the plant, reached 29.72 degrees Celsius

Still works for cooling, right? It's not that there's any technical issues; it's that there's ecological issues. Though there's going to be much larger ecological issues if we have to replace it with coal.

I get your point, but it's a bit more nuanced. High water temp doesn't just impact the ecosystem, but also the plant's cooling efficiency. Also, those ecological rules aren't just guidelines, they're legally binding. As for coal, absolutely agree - we don't want to go backwards, but this does show how climate change throws a wrench in the works even for clean energy.

Re: Hungary nuclear plant cuts output because of warm Danube waters

#12

Post by pajko »

andsoitis wrote: post #6
tekla wrote: post #3

"Nuclear plant does what it is designed to do"

The news here, and thus the interesting and probably unexpected thing to note, is that if we depend on natural sources for water to cool nuclear plants and due to climate change the temperature of waters rise, we need to adjust where we build plants and/or spend extra energy to cool down the water to in turn cool down the plants.

Yep. Also this shows that the Danube is not able to cool the power plant, yet the guys are building Paks II...

Re: Hungary nuclear plant cuts output because of warm Danube waters

#13

Post by dgellow »

XorNot wrote: post #9
yread wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not just that water temperature rises but that there is less of it (ie drought) so the constant amount of constantly hot water from the plant gets mixed with less water left in the river increasing its temperature more

Well it's got more to do with not wanting to boil the river ecosystem rather then being unable to cool the plant.

It’s both, higher temperatures also make the cooling less efficient.

Re: Hungary nuclear plant cuts output because of warm Danube waters

#15

Post by dgellow »

sp332 wrote: post #5
tekla wrote: post #3

"Nuclear plant does what it is designed to do"

Climate change starts hurting one of our best chances of avoiding climate change.

I think at this point we should stop saying „climate change starts …“. It’s already happening since a while. Climate change does indeed hurts one of our best chances of reducing C02 levels.

Re: Hungary nuclear plant cuts output because of warm Danube waters

#18

Post by unglaublich »

pajko wrote: post #12
andsoitis wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The news here, and thus the interesting and probably unexpected thing to note, is that if we depend on natural sources for water to cool nuclear plants and due to climate change the temperature of waters rise, we need to adjust where we build plants and/or spend extra energy to cool down the water to in turn cool down the plants.

Yep. Also this shows that the Danube is not able to cool the power plant, yet the guys are building Paks II...

It's perfectly able to do so, but not at full power without heating up the river so much it would hurt organisms in there.

Even then, it _could_ have been designed to do so - through more flow - but it's just a design parameter that was optimized in a cost/performance trade-off.

Re: Hungary nuclear plant cuts output because of warm Danube waters

#19

Post by DarkNova6 »

domenkozar wrote: post #17

Note that warm waters is a typical strawman argument against nuclear power. These are rare anomalies and there's dry-cooling of nuclear power plants (although it's less efficient and costs more).

Plus, most reactors were built in the 70s/80s when waterflow of rivers was more plentiful and less warm on average. Ironically, nuclear contributed to none of that.

Re: Hungary nuclear plant cuts output because of warm Danube waters

#20

Post by explorer83 »

sp332 wrote: post #5
tekla wrote: post #3

"Nuclear plant does what it is designed to do"

Climate change starts hurting one of our best chances of avoiding climate change.

A bit of an exaggeration. It's the middle of summer. It's not like this water source won't cool down again.
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