Hacker News Reader

Comment by lispm | Hacker News Reader

France imports in hot/dry summers when the rivers are overheating from cooling the nuclear powerplants. France imports in cold winters when their nuclear reactors are not sufficient to power the electrical heating for the homes...

View on HN

> However, this takes off-line about 40 percent of Germany’s nuclear capacity and Germany is one of the two countries along Great Britain from which France imports electricity during the high-usage months in the summer. The reason importing electricity from Germany and the U.K. will be particularly important for France during a drought is because 24 of its 58 nuclear reactors do not have cooling towers and purely depend on the flow of river water to cool the reactor cores. What this means is that if the level of water in rivers drops, it means that some of the reactors may have to be shut down especially those on the Rhone River in southwest France, where temperatures are expected to be particularly high due to its geographical location.

http://www.businessinsider.com/french-heat-wave-one-tumultou...

> France imports UK electricity as summer heatwave puts a third of its nukes out of action

https://thinkprogress.org/france-imports-uk-electricity-as-s...

> Germany powers France in cold despite nuclear u-turn

https://www.reuters.com/article/europe-power-supply/germany-...

> France was heavily dependent on power imports from Germany during the first cold spell of this winter, despite the fact that most of the country’s nuclear reactors are back online

http://energypost.eu/france-cant-meet-power-demand/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com