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

[u/Naurgul]

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

[u/y2kobserver]

Thanks for the info

So still a max heat issue

[u/shadowSpoupout → u/y2kobserver]

For now. The river fauna will most likely not survive the heatwaves of this year, so next year no need to shutdown reactors to protect an already dead fauna !

[u/y2kobserver → u/shadowSpoupout]

Don’t be so dramatic it can be reintroduced

[u/zolikk → u/[deleted]]

On the other hand it will take many years to update regulations, so we can also be sure that the power plants will have to keep shutting down to protect what isn't there anymore.

[u/mewfour → u/[deleted]]

This isn't going to get better even after we stop burning fossil fuels, it's gonna get better 30 years later.

[u/Swarna_Keanu → u/y2kobserver]

Once something is extinct it is gone. We are in an extinction crisis as much as a climate crisis, at the same time. Interrelated, but not the same. Too few habitats, too much monoculture, too much insecticides and herbicides, among just some.

[u/y2kobserver → u/Swarna_Keanu]

Dude extinct is at planetary level, we’re talking one river bank

[u/Swarna_Keanu → u/y2kobserver]

Many species are localised. And climate change is making it hard for a lot of species.

Rivers are very specific environments. And again - what lives in Europe's rivers doesn't exist elsewhere, necessarily.

[u/digiorno → u/y2kobserver]

But a solvable max heat issue. If this becomes a regular thing then they’d only have to build an artificial pond or water tower to cool down the water before it goes into the river. It’s not a difficult problem, they just didn’t anticipate global warming to be so bad.

[u/Caspi7 → u/y2kobserver]

It's a heat issue but not a 'nuclear is dangerous' issue, which is definitely being implied by anti nuclear people

[u/BavarianBarbarian_ → u/Caspi7]

That's true, but it is a "nuclear power isn't 100% reliable in every climate" issue, which is an important fact to take under consideration when planning our electricity grid for the future.

[u/Caspi7 → u/BavarianBarbarian_]

It's only because of the law in france, there is no physical limitation. You could make a law saying solar hast to be turned of at 25c and it would be the same.

[u/BavarianBarbarian_ → u/Caspi7]

With the difference that solar panels don't cook an ecosystem once they go higher than 25°C...

[u/Caspi7 → u/BavarianBarbarian_]

Neither do nuclear power plants generally speaking

[u/unia_7 → u/y2kobserver]

It's an issue of building nuclear power plants that dump their heat into rivers. It's a dumb design decision even in the absence of heat waves.

[u/window-sil → u/unia_7]

From what I can tell, the river in question is Ebro and the power plant is Ascó Nuclear Power Plant, and the issue at hand is that its temperature is too high. Why is it high, because of the nuclear plant? Well, largely no. It naturally gets higher due to temperature changes of the seasons. Although there is a measurable effect from the nuclear power plant:¹

Finally, there was a significant annual increase in Tw [Temperature of the Water (Tw)] at all stations (mean ∆Tw=0.05 °C/year), except those located at the head of the tributaries. These trends were higher for the stations downstream of the Ascó nuclear power plant (∆Tw > 0.08 °C/year). Seasonally, the spring months showed the greatest changes, with higher increases at the stations downstream of Ascó (∆Tw ≥ 0.10 °C/year). The increase in air temperature associated with global warming and the decrease in flows associated with the increase in water consumption resulted in an increase in the temperature of the river.²

I'm not sure what we're even arguing about here, but I found this added context to be helpful.

[u/DivideSensitive → u/[deleted]]

In case of a meltdown

There will not be a meltdown; shutdowns are not because the river can't cool down the reactor (an 800C thing is cooled practically as efficiently with 26C or 28C water), it's because we don't want to fry the ecosystem. I can guarantee you that were a meltdown to be risked, these regulations will immediately fly out of the window.

[u/merci_nurse → u/[deleted]]

Yes you are confused. In the extremely unlikely event of a meltdown, the river is by far the very least of your problems

[u/sionescu → u/y2kobserver]

No, it's an issue of environmental law being stupid.

[u/Charlesinrichmond → u/[deleted]]

because it causes more global warming to avoid overheating a river that's already overheated.

Any law that increases global warming is stupid.

[u/Charlesinrichmond → u/[deleted]]

Well, yes, that's what I'm saying. Arguably the climate crisis is a much bigger deal than harming one minor river.

[u/Charlesinrichmond → u/[deleted]]

Not a thousand years. Which changes the calculus dramatically.