"Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors."

-Jonas Salk

Friday, January 25, 2008

Drought and Nukes

I mentioned this last August: nuclear plants are thirsty. Though they help with the carbon problem, they are also vulnerable to climate shifts. (The article I referenced then seems to have expired.)

(Why are newspapers so silly? I am sure that paid archives achieve less for them than ongoing advertisements. The NY Times seems to have figured it out...)

Here's another article in the same vein: the southeastern drought is causing power shortages over there by shutting down nukes. Let's hope that this eases before the summer cooling season kicks in.

1 comment:

Dr. Lemming said...

Coal based power stations have the same problem- in the middle of last year, three Australian states (out of 6) had to curtail coal-based power generation because they had no water for cooling.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/24/2014680.htm?site=victoria