Getting More Expensive To Keep That A/C Buzzing

I've been a proponent of a shift to nuclear power as it's cheaper and cleaner than traditional coal-fired plants. In a post-peak-oil world we need to focus on keeping the lights on as opposed to keeping the cars running.

Here though is a problem I hadn't yet considered. A problem that lays at the nexus of our impending energy and water problems.

By MITCH WEISS Associated Press Writer

LAKE NORMAN, N.C. — Nuclear reactors across the Southeast could be forced to throttle back or temporarily shut down later this year because drought is drying up the rivers and lakes that supply power plants with the awesome amounts of cooling water they need to operate.
Utility officials say such shutdowns probably wouldn't result in blackouts. But they could lead to shockingly higher electric bills for millions of Southerners, because the region's utilities may be forced to buy expensive replacement power from other energy companies.

Already, there has been one brief, drought-related shutdown, at a reactor in Alabama over the summer.
"Water is the nuclear industry's Achilles' heel," said Jim Warren, executive director of N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, an environmental group critical of nuclear power. "You need a lot of water to operate nuclear plants." He added: "This is becoming a crisis."

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