For anyone who is understandably anti-nuclear, I would say watch this documentary first before voting against it.
Got mixed filling about nuclear fission energy. It’s less bad than the alternative. I’m glad we built these rectors at the time rather than coal/gas plants.
But the technology used in current reactors is not a good solution mainly due to the waste and risks. I hope we get either Gen IV (ie fast neutron reactors) or Thorium or fusion reactors to work, and it’s not prohibitively expensive, so old reactors can be retired.
Current reactors also use huge amounts of water which many places don’t have (France for example).
Water is used mostly for cooling. It’s pumped in and then pumped back out as is, only a few degrees warmer.
Because of environmental regulations reactors are forbidden from rejecting hot water during heatwaves, when the extra heat would get water above a temperature threshold that’s dangerous for wildlife (ie fishes). But it’s typically not a lack of water.
Yes, that’s what I meant to say.
Newer reactors are designed to be cooled by other methods such as, IIRC, liquid metal. Water-cooled reactors were, again IIRC, originally designed for nuclear submarines. Watch the documentary if you have an hour to kill, it’s really interesting!