July 25, 2006

Overheating Reactors (Yet Another Global Warming Feedback Loop)

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Global warming is turning out to be a big problem for nuclear reactors this week. First, we had the jellyfish swarming incident at a Japanese reactor.

And now overly warm waters in Spain’s Ebro river have forced the company that controls a reactor near Santa Maria de Garoña to temporarily shut it down. The reason? The Ebro river is running so hot that can no longer cool the reactor.

This of course, means that Spain’s other power generators need to work harder to fill in for the off-line reactor. Which means more emissions, at least in the short term.

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