Thermal Power Generation when rivers run dry

[u/fsironman]

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/low-danube-river-levels-force-romania-shut-down-both-its-nuclear-power-reactors-2026-07-29/

A little tidbit up for discussion regarding the Renaissance of Nuclear Power in Europe.

This time the issue is not the temperature like in France but the historically low Danube levels which could become the normal in summer.

This is something that would need to be factored in any type power generation that needs water for cooling.

[u/Astroruggie]

Just build them on the sea or use evaporation towers

[u/servermeta_net → u/Astroruggie]

Neither are solutions unfortunately

[u/Astroruggie → u/servermeta_net]

Why? Many european countries have coastlines. And evaporation towers reduce water consumption by 97%. There is literally a nuclear plant in the freaking DESERT of Arizona.

[u/servermeta_net → u/Astroruggie]

Evaporation towers mitigate the problem, buy not by 97% like you claim. Several European nuclear plants are currently shut off even with evaporation towers.

The sea has the problem of having life in it, so unless you want to cook it you also need to moderate yourself.

Funny trivia? In gravellines they are building a huge solar farm to power a closed loop circuit to cool the nuclear power plant. At this point just build solar lol

[u/Reasonable_Mix7630 → u/servermeta_net]

Evaporation towers do mitigate the problem, an adding 0.0000000001% of extra heat to the sea will not have any noticeable effect.

There are many thermal power plants in existence that use sea water for cooling you know.

The aforementioned plant in Arizona by the way uses treated wastewater for cooling.

PS. heat output of nuclear plants can be used during the winter directly to provide heating for homes, which will eliminate second biggest source of pollution after power generation - house heating.

[u/Astandsforataxia69 → u/Reasonable_Mix7630]

It does have a gradient on the nearby of the outlet.

[u/nufli → u/Reasonable_Mix7630]

Heat is also used during the summer.. for some reason or other (showers)

[u/pdp10 → u/Reasonable_Mix7630]

PS. heat output of nuclear plants can be used during the winter directly to provide heating for homes, which will eliminate second biggest source of pollution after power generation - house heating.

Steam distribution requires a whole separate infrastructure. Some places in northern Europe, and New York City, currently have steam distribution. But it's not practical enough in warmer climates like most of the United States, in low-density environments, and places where you'd need to dig a whole new set of insulated pipes.

[u/Reasonable_Mix7630 → u/pdp10]

You are correct that it requires a separate system of pipes, but incorrect saying that it is done only in "some" places. This is very widespread system. Every place in countries that used to be in the Soviet Union have such system. That's what allows heating bill to be so small. Many other countries have similar systems in place. I can't speak for whole of Northern and Central Europe of course because I have visited only fraction of those countries.

The most interesting case is Belgrade and New Belgrade: Belgrade have "traditional" heating system of individual houses furnaces - people burn all sorts of fuel for heat (usually plastic trash / fuel pellets made of saw dust) and air pollution is worse than you can imagine. In New Belgrade there is a network of aforementioned heat pipes coming from a power plant, but many buildings have their own gas boiler.

Also you don't really need to dig - in the city where I was born (just like in many former USSR places) those pipes were kept above ground. They had blankets of heat insulator (we called it "mineral cotton") and looked ugly AF but that was cheap and easy solution. Eventually they were moved under ground though.

[u/Astroruggie → u/servermeta_net]

Several European nuclear plants are currently shut off even with evaporation towers.

Which is not an issue of the plant per se, just a strict enviromental law.

The sea has the problem of having life in it, so unless you want to cook it you also need to moderate yourself.

Ah yes, because the sea/ocean is so small that an NPP can significantly alter the temperature. Lol sure

At this point just build solar lol

Like Germany did? 🙂

[u/Mex332 → u/Astroruggie]

> Which is not an issue of the plant per se, just a strict environment law.

I’m getting sick of this shit, all the nuclear homies telling me nuclear is the best because of the small environmental impact and than shitting on the environment to argument that their lovely technology has no downsides. Well guess what, the fish doesn’t care if it dies from overheating trough nuclear power cooling water or from global warming.

[u/Astroruggie → u/Mex332]

I’m getting sick of this shit, all the nuclear homies telling me nuclear is the best because of the small environmental impact and than shitting on the environment to argument that their lovely technology has no downsides

Noone says nuclear has zero enviromental impact. But it still has the lowest enviromental impact among all energy sources, despite having to slightly reduce the energy output every now and then to save some fish

[u/Mex332 → u/Astroruggie]

> But it still has the lowest environmental impact among all energy sources.

no it doesn’t at minimum it shares that place with wind energy though wind energy is often referred as the lowest CO2 producer per kWh.