The Blue Voice

Friday, January 25, 2008

"Clean, Affordable and Safe?"

"America must expand its use of clean, affordable, and safe nuclear power. If France can get nearly 80% of its electricity from nuclear, America can significantly increase our percentage of power from nuclear energy." Quote from Rudy Giuliani's campaign website.

Two days ago this AP piece by Mitch Weiss, Drought could force nuke-plant shutdowns, was headlined on every news site I visit, from AOL's welcome screen to The Raw Story. Given how ubiquitous this headline has been, it seems likely only those who spent the past couple of days under the influence of a migraine or or on a slow boat to China, can be unaware of it. I find it almost biblical the way these two stories , the persistent drought in the Southeast and the way nukes guzzle water, have conflated to illustrate our ultimate ignorance when it comes to things environmental.

The drought that has afflicted the southeastern states is hydrological, an advanced stage of drought where water shortage is reflected in declining surface and subsurface water levels. The current drought is far from over; according to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center:

Widespread rains during the last half of January will contribute to at least some degree of drought improvement for the entire Southeastern drought area outside of Florida. The improvement should be more limited over the longer term from southern Alabama into central and southern Georgia and the Carolinas due to below-normal rainfall forecast during February-April. The drier weather expected later in the season means that conditions could deteriorate following initial improvement, especially in areas near the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Also, even with several inches of rain during the first 2 weeks of the forecast period, many reservoirs and wells will remain low due to lingering impacts from the extreme rainfall deficits incurred last year.

In fact most of the areas currently experiencing the worst of the drought need anywhere from six to fifteen inches of rainfall during the next three months to ease it, an event clearly unlikely to happen. 24 of the nation's 105 nuclear reactors are located in the areas severely affected by this drought. 22 of those reactors are built on the shores of lakes and rivers and rely on submerged intake pipes to draw billions of gallons of water for use in cooling and condensing steam after it has turned the plants' turbines. Because of the yearlong dry spell gripping the region, the water levels on those lakes and rivers are getting close to the minimums set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Over the next several months, the water could drop below the intake pipes altogether. Or the shallow water could become too hot under the sun to use as coolant.

"If water levels get to a certain point, we'll have to power it down or go off line," said Robert Yanity, a spokesman for South Carolina Electric & Gas Co, which operates the Summer nuclear plant outside Columbia, S.C. If this does happen, millions of customers will be financially shocked by their electrical bills:

"Currently, nuclear power costs between $5 to $7 to produce a megawatt hour," said Daniele Seitz, an energy analyst with New York-based Dahlman Rose & Co. "It would cost 10 times that amount that if you had to buy replacement power — especially during the summer." So much for the "affordable" part of Rudy's nuclear energy analysis. My emphasis. (op. cit. above)