TVA Shuts Reactors: River Water is Too Hot

In the middle of a heat wave, the Tennessee Valley Authority has been forced to shut down a reactor at Browns Ferry. because water drawn from the Tennessee River was exceeding a 90-degree average over 24 hours, amid a blistering heat wave across the Southeast. "We don't believe we've ever shut down a nuclear unit because of river temperature," said John Moulton, spokesman for the Knoxville, Tenn.-based utility. They are buying power elsewhere and was already imposing a surcharge because of lower hydroelectric power production caused by drought conditions.

This was discussed in an earlier post: ""We're going to have to solve the climate-change problem if we're going to have nuclear power, not the other way around. As the climate warms up, nuclear power plants are less able to deliver." Same is true of coal fired plants, and we are getting lots more of those. " ::Houston Chronicle