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Environment

Climate Risks To Nuclear Plants Probed

by Jessica Morrison
October 26, 2015 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 93, Issue 42

A leading Democrat in the Senate wants to know how climate change is affecting the nation’s nuclear power plants. Last week, Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) sent a letter to the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requesting information about nuclear power infrastructure that may be affected by climate change. Markey cited nuclear plant shutdowns in Massachusetts last winter linked to nor’easters and other shutdowns in Alabama, Virginia, and Michigan attributed to tornadoes in the past five years. “Other extreme weather events have also threatened the safe operation of U.S. nuclear power plants, including tornado outbreaks, hurricanes, and droughts,” he wrote. “Rising water temperatures, exacerbated by global warming, have also directly impacted nuclear power plants.” Markey asked NRC Chairman Stephen G. Burns to provide a list of every weather-related reactor shutdown or reduction in power generation that occurred in the past decade, including increased cooling water intake temperatures, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, flooding, and wildfires.

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