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Solar Valley Coalition

Water Concerns

Drought hurts TVA hydro production, prompts water transfer review: 11/30/2007 AP

Electricity demand guzzling state's water. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 11/18/07

Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Production. November 2003 • NREL/CP-550-35190. P. Torcellini, N. Long, and R. Judkoff,
National Renewable Energy Laboratory . NREL is a U.S. Department of Energy Laboratory Operated by Midwest Research Institute

ENERGY IMPACTS ON GEORGIA’S WATER RESOURCES. Safe Energy Director, Southern Alliance for Clean
Energy (SACE) (2003)

Thermal Pollution of the Waters of the State of TN. Presentation of Louise Gorenflo at the 10/18/07 TDEC
Water Quality Board meeting.(pdf)
Also available as ppt

Global warming and nuclear power

There is a very negative side to nuclear power which is less well-known. It requires a great amount of
COOL water to keep reactors operating at safe temperatures

David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer who is with the Union of Concerned Scientists said . "As the climate
warms up, nuclear power plants are less able to deliver,"

During the extreme heat of 2003 in France, 17 nuclear reactors operated at reduced capacity or were
shut down. Électricité de France was forced to buy power from neighboring countries on the open
market, where demand drove the price of a megawatt hour as high as €1,000, or $1,350. ....THE IRONY
OF IT ALL, France is beginning to look at Windpower.

In Germany, the energy giant E.ON also has been forced to reduce operations at its nuclear plants for
MONTHS at a time because of heat. Just a few years ago, such slowdowns lasted only weeks, said Petra
Uhlmann, a spokeswoman for E.ON. "We reckon there may be more heat waves in coming summers so
we may have to reduce operations again," she said. Germany has, in fact, turned to solar for its energy
and imports a major portion of its solar cells from the U.S.

In Spain, a nuclear power reactor at Santa María de Garoña was shut for a week in July after high
temperatures were recorded in the Ebro River.

In the U.S. where at least two-thirds of nuclear plants are on lakes and rivers, the group Public Citizen
reported a shutdown last year at a plant in Michigan, and slowdowns at plants in Minnesota, Illinois
Pennsylvania, and Tennessee because of hot conditions.
In Australia where the government is considering introducing nuclear power, some officials and operators
warn of similar pitfalls if plants are built in areas where there already are water shortages.