Baseload nuclear plants can’t take the heat! Meanwhile, zero stories of solar plants shutting down due to heat. Quite the opposite: more sun, more solar power!

Scott DiSavino wrote for Reuters 18 July 2012, Four U.S. power reactors shut & NYC sweats during heat wave,

Several nuclear plants on the U.S. East Coast shut down by early Wednesday and New York’s Consolidated Edison power company reduced the voltage in parts of Manhattan as the obsessive heat wave stressed the region’s power system.

Despite the shutdown of four giant nuclear reactors in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and South Carolina, the power systems delivered the juice needed by the regions’ homes and businesses to keep air conditioners humming on the projected last day of a brutal heat wave.

Then there’s this excuse:

Although the heat makes it more difficult to use the warmer river water to cool power plants and can stress power lines due to high usage, the reactors did not necessarily shut due to the heat.

They shut down due to faulty sensors, leaks, or unknown causes, and that’s somehow better?

Meanwhile, solar just keeps generating. I’ve never heard of a wind plant shutting down due to heat, either.

Remind me again, why is Georgia Power’s and Southern Company’s bet-the-farm risk on new nukes at Plant Vogtle a good idea? Wasn’t it supposed to be about dependable power?

-jsq

PS: Owed to Mandy Hancock.

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