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China’s coastal nuclear plants are less exposed to drought and heat

An industry specialist said China’s reliance on coastal seawater for cooling makes its reactors less vulnerable to drought and high temperatures than many European river-based sites.

Reported · Written up by our desk · China

While extreme weather has disrupted nuclear power generation in parts of Europe, an industry specialist said it is unlikely to derail China’s rapid expansion of nuclear energy, according to SCMP Economy.

The unusually hot and dry summer has contributed to reactor outages across Europe, with France reporting a record shortfall of more than 20.0 per cent in its nuclear-based capacity, where nuclear provides about 70.0 per cent of electricity generation, Le Monde reported on August 11.

SCMP Economy cited Francois Morin of the World Nuclear Association, who said China’s plants are built along the coast and use open seawater for reactor cooling, which he said reduces vulnerability to droughts and heatwaves compared with Europe’s reactors that are mainly located along rivers.

Morin also said China has experience managing typhoons, and that they did not pose a serious threat to nuclear reactors, even as coastal areas face other extreme weather risks like storms and rising sea levels.

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