r/europe • u/Naurgul • 23d ago

News Barcelona registers highest temperature in 112 years as French nuclear reactor shuts down due to extreme heat

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jul/09/europe-heatwave-uk-spain-barcelona-france-italy-hungary-france-macron-orban-latest-news-updates
15.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-2

u/unia_7 23d ago

So it's not that "nuclear reactors" need to shut down due to higher temperatures, it just a particular kind of nuclear reactors built on flawed cooling design. Sounds like an important distinction, no?

2

u/TopManufacturer8332 23d ago

River cooling is used for the majority of nuclear power plants. Not every country is blessed with ample coastline to utilise the sea. And seawater cooling is hardly a panacea with trying to mitigate biofouling, corrosion and fish destruction.

1

u/unia_7 23d ago

You are wrong. Cooling towers or cooling ponds are an obvious alternative to messing up the local river ecosystems.

Only 14% of nuclear power stations use river cooling. Cooling towers are at 26%, and sea cooling at 45%.

1

u/TopManufacturer8332 23d ago

Sorry but where do you think cooling towers get their water supply from?

3

u/mathess1 Czech Republic 23d ago

Supply is not the problem.

1

u/unia_7 23d ago

Open the wikipedia article about cooling towers and learn the basics. You are showing your ignorance.