Are #Coastal #Nuclear Power Plants Ready for #SeaLevelRise?

As shorelines creep inland and #storms worsen, nuclear reactors around the world face new challenges.

by John Vidal, August 21, 2018

"The outer defensive wall of what is expected to be the world’s most expensive nuclear power station is taking shape on the shoreline of the choppy gray waters of the Bristol Channel in western England.

"By the time the US $25-billion #HinkleyPointC nuclear station is finished, possibly in 2028, the concrete seawall will be 12.5 meters high, 900 meters long, and durable enough, the UK regulator and French engineers say, to withstand the strongest storm surge, the greatest tsunami, and the highest sea-level rise.

"But will it? Independent nuclear consultant #PeteRoche, a former adviser to the UK government and #Greenpeace, points out that the tidal range along this stretch of coast is one of the highest in the world, and that #erosion is heavy. Indeed, observers reported serious flooding on the site in 1981 when an earlier nuclear power station had to be shut down for a week, following a #SpringTide and a #StormSurge. However well built, says Roche, the new seawall does not adequately take into account #sealevel  rise due to climate change.

"#Flooding can be catastrophic to a nuclear power plant because it can knock out its electrical systems, disabling its cooling mechanisms and leading to overheating and possible #meltdown and a dangerous release of #radioactivity. Flooding at the #FukushimaDaiichi plant in Japan as a result of the March 2011 tsunami caused severe damage to several of the plant’s reactors and only narrowly avoided a catastrophic release of radioactivity that could have forced the evacuation of 50 million people.

"In the #UnitedStates, where nine nuclear plants are within three kilometers of the #ocean and four reactors have been identified by Stanford academics as vulnerable to #StormSurges and sea-level rise, flooding is common, says David Lochbaum, a former nuclear engineer and director of the nuclear safety project at the Union of Concerned Scientists (#UCS).

"Lochbaum says over 20 flooding incidents have been recorded at US nuclear plants since the early 1980s. “The most likely [cause of flooding] is the increasing frequency of extreme events,' he says." 

#ExtremeWeather #ClimateCrisis #NuclearPlants #UK #HinkleyPoint #CoastalFlooding 

Full article:
https://hakaimagazine.com/features/are-coastal-nuclear-power-plants-ready-for-sea-level-rise/