The United States has the world’s most advanced economy, is the world's largest electricity consumer and rarely has sustained electricity shortages covering large areas.
Unfortunately that might soon not be the case - the United States is suffering through an extended heat wave and when combined with the worst drought since 1956 energy production across most of the nation is threatened.
Power plants are completely dependent on water for cooling, they are overheating and utilities are shutting them down or running their plants at lower capacity.
If the water levels in the rivers they use for cooling drop too low, the power plant – already overworked from the heat – won't be able to draw in enough water and if the cooling water discharged from the plant raises already high river water temperatures above safe environmental limits a plant will be forced to shut down.
The lack of rain, and the incessant heat, has also increased the need for irrigation water for farming, meaning increasing competition between the agricultural and power generation sectors for the same water.
“Built on the Colorado River in Nevada during the Great Depression, the Hoover Dam was built to control floods, provide irrigation water and create hydroelectric power. The dam now provides electricity to 29 million Americans.
It has been a significant power generation source for decades, but it’s highly reliant on water and a 10-year dry spell has drained the water sources needed to operate the dam’s turbines at desired levels. The plummeting water levels have reduced the Hoover Dam’s power generation by 23 percent. This decrease in power generation at the Hoover Dam could cause electricity prices to increase five-fold for those in the Southwestern United States.
Lake Mead, created by Colorado River water impounded by the Hoover Dam, also displays warning signs – the dry spell has reduced the Lake’s water levels by 59 percent. Researchers at the University of California in San Diego predict that the lake has a 50 percent chance of decreasing to a point too low for power generation by 2017. They also predict that Lake Mead has a 50 percent chance of going dry by 2021.”
The south-western US is going to end up like the Australia of the Mad Max films.
"We fail to mandate economic sanity because our brains are addled by....compassion." (Garrett Hardin)
Wind or PV requires no water.
Hydroelectric power needs a lot of water, but this is not consumed and after passing through the turbines the water can be used for irigation or domestic water supply.
Steam power plants that use cooling towers actually consume a lot of water.
Other steam power plants use river water directly for cooling, no water is consumed, but a great flow of water is required.
Low water=reduced power operation, or in extreme cases a complete shutdown.
If the river water is warmer than normal, then both power output and efficiency are reduced.
Diesel generating plant does not normally need water (except for very small volumes for initial filling and to replace leakage)
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
Nuclear power plants often rely on cold waters to cool their reactors. But as hot weather is causing water temperatures to rise, nuclear plants have had to respond. In Connecticut, the Millstone nuclear plant was recently shut down as the waters surrounding it reached nearly 77 degrees, 2 degrees higher than the 75 degrees the reactor was designed to withstand.
In July, an Illinois nuclear plant, whose reactor was built to work in water below 98 degrees, asked for special permission to continue operation when the waters around it reached 102 degrees. Permission was granted partly because if a nuclear plant shuts down, cold water must be available to cool all equipment.
Craig Nesbit, the owner of the plant, told the New York Times, " Last thing in the world you’d ever want to do, if there was no safety implication, is shut down a 2,600-megawatt nuclear plant in the biggest heat wave in the last 30 years."
Other plants in the Midwest have faced similar problems with warm water temperatures as well as low water levels, which inhibit reactors’ pipes from drawing up water.
Although we should be focusing on creating more sustainable initiatives than nuclear energy, even greener energy projects are struggling to meet the supply of our large energy demand. For example, California’s hydroelectric power plants cannot produce as much electricity this summer due to the drought. Perhaps, the only truly sustainable approach we can take is to change our resource-consuming lifestyles.
Still, the worst-case scenario is not simply a reduction of energy, but a nuclear plant meltdown. Emergency officials in Connecticut even held a drill to deal with two fictitious accidents at the Millstone nuclear plant. They prepared for a release of large amounts of radioactivity from the reactor. The governor declared a general emergency, closing parks, moving schoolchildren to evacuation centers, evacuating residents within five miles of the plant and distributing potassium iodide pills to guard against absorption of radioactive iodine through people’s thyroids.
Yes, all steam power plants need cooling water in order to condense the spent steam into boiler feed water for re-use.
This applies no matter what the source of the steam may be, including nuclear, coal burning, oil burning, solar thermal, and the steam section of combined cycle gas turbine plant.
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
Right now, tonight, we were talking about this very subject of drought and nuclear in France - well me and my pals were - not the press or the government.
Never mind America, we've had the hottest summer on record here in France. There's been hardly any let up for weeks and weeks - temperatures in the high 30s and the whole place is dry as tinder. The streams are running dry and the rivers and lakes are as low as hell. EDF must be pretty worried.
The problem is that using even more electricity always seems to be the solution to any problem. People are installing air conditioning units, buying electric fans, even leaving 'fridge doors open.
hardworkinghippy wrote:....reaches for the kleenex...
No, stop...
This is serious.
Right now, tonight, we were talking about this very subject of drought and nuclear in France - well me and my pals were - not the press or the government.
Never mind America, we've had the hottest summer on record here in France. There's been hardly any let up for weeks and weeks - temperatures in the high 30s and the whole place is dry as tinder. The streams are running dry and the rivers and lakes are as low as hell. EDF must be pretty worried.
The problem is that using even more electricity always seems to be the solution to any problem. People are installing air conditioning units, buying electric fans, even leaving 'fridge doors open.
Crazy.
We need to look at how the folks in traditionally hot and dry countries historically built their buildings to keep them naturally cool.
hardworkinghippy wrote:. even leaving 'fridge doors open.
Crazy.
Crazy enough but not as crazy as the way the radioactive waste is dispsed of according to that article:
Finally, the plants must ensure proper dilution of radioactive effluents into the river. Below a certain rate, eg 30 cubic meters per second to the Loire, the plants must store their waste in sheets that time the river bailout.
En dessous d'un certain débit, par exemple 30 mètres cubes par seconde pour la Loire, les centrales doivent stocker leurs effluents dans des bâches le temps que le fleuve se renfloue. Et au bout de plusieurs semaines, si les sites de stockages sont pleins, il faut arrêter les réacteurs.
Which means :
Over a certain debit, (30m per second for the Loire), the reactors must stock the waste in plastic sheets until the water re-flows. If, after some weeks the stocks are full, the reactors must be closed.
hardworkinghippy wrote:. even leaving 'fridge doors open.
Crazy.
Crazy enough but not as crazy as the way the radioactive waste is dispsed of according to that article:
Finally, the plants must ensure proper dilution of radioactive effluents into the river. Below a certain rate, eg 30 cubic meters per second to the Loire, the plants must store their waste in sheets that time the river bailout.
hardworkinghippy wrote:. even leaving 'fridge doors open.
Crazy.
Crazy enough but not as crazy as the way the radioactive waste is dispsed of according to that article:
Finally, the plants must ensure proper dilution of radioactive effluents into the river. Below a certain rate, eg 30 cubic meters per second to the Loire, the plants must store their waste in sheets that time the river bailout.
Not quite sure what was lost in the translation.
I think they're referring to warmed cooling-water rather than water that's radioactive.
I almost splashed the screen there !
