Monday, July 23, 2007

Rising sea levels to endanger nuclear power future

From Market Oracle, which is pro-nuke: One of the primary reasons for the building of more nuclear power plants today is to combat global warming and climate change, as nuclear power is relatively free of carbon emissions. However if this is to be used as a reason for building more plants, then this implies that the theory of global warming and its effects, such as sea levels rising are to be believed.

The most dramatic aspects that must be examined is the that fact the majority of nuclear power plants need a constant supply of large volumes of water and therefore many are next to large river, lakes and the biggest water source on earth, right next to the sea. And what's supposed to be happening to sea levels with global warming?

… [Many] nuclear power plants are situated near rivers, canals and a great majority are on the coast. Scientists predict that sea levels could rise over 20 feet, about 7m worldwide as the polar ice caps melt in the Arctic and Antarctica as well as glaciers melting such as the massive glaciers in Greenland . So if this hypothesis comes true, what will happen to all those nuclear plants on the coast?

… [It] is not just the British nuclear installations that are going to suffer if sea levels rise. If we take a look across the Atlantic to the United States of America we also notice some damage to nuclear sites by sea level rises. The USA has the advantage that a fair number of its nuclear sites are many miles inland, on rivers, lakes and canals and as they are so far from the sea they escape the brunt of the damage…

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