I do know how they work, and I agree the French experience with river-cooled plants has not been great lately. But I'm surprised if the engineers are confident about future sea levels, when climate scientists aren't, though it's not really our problem of course.
I still don't get why we should build nuclear power stations on low-lying coasts that will be subject to tidal flooding within a century, and will be underwater before the structures are safe, when other technologies are available.
They put them by the coast because you need access to large amounts of reliable water for cooling, which would be a problem if you built the reactor inland and e.g. your lake or river dried up in a drought. They’re also designed to take future sea levels into account - the whole thing is built on a raised concrete ‘raft’ and protected by sea defences that can be adapted over time.
I do know how they work, and I agree the French experience with river-cooled plants has not been great lately. But I'm surprised if the engineers are confident about future sea levels, when climate scientists aren't, though it's not really our problem of course.
I still don't get why we should build nuclear power stations on low-lying coasts that will be subject to tidal flooding within a century, and will be underwater before the structures are safe, when other technologies are available.
They put them by the coast because you need access to large amounts of reliable water for cooling, which would be a problem if you built the reactor inland and e.g. your lake or river dried up in a drought. They’re also designed to take future sea levels into account - the whole thing is built on a raised concrete ‘raft’ and protected by sea defences that can be adapted over time.