Geez Lluis, I'm happy to take in new information about a subject on which I am not an expert. No need to take a shot at me! I'm not even sure you are disagreeing with me, as you said, "the terciary or open loop the water is not resused..." But I don't know why the temperature difference is a problem. Can't that water be stored until it is cooled down and then released? My concern was irradiated water. So let's ask Copilot about that. She says: Irradiated water, or water that has been exposed to radiation, is a byproduct of nuclear power generation. Here's how it's managed:
1. **Spent Nuclear Fuel**: In nuclear power plants, spent nuclear fuel is stored underwater in the spent fuel pool on the plant⁴. The irradiated rods are stored in a water-filled pool within the reactor building or in an adjacent building³. Over time, as the spent fuel is stored in the pool, it becomes cooler as the radioactivity decays away⁴.
2. **Radioactive Waste Water**: During the cooling process, the water becomes contaminated with radionuclides – unstable atoms with excess energy – and must be filtered to remove as many radionuclides as possible². The filtered water is then stored in huge steel tanks or released into nearby bodies of water².
3. **Disposal**: The decision to release it into the oceans is – some would argue – the most pragmatic long-term solution². However, the fact is that we don’t know exactly what those effects will be on marine – or human – life, given the sheer volume of water set to be released from the Fukushima plant².
4. **Fukushima Incident**: For instance, at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, highly radioactive water leaked from a treatment machine, but no one was injured and radiation monitoring shows no impact to the outside environment¹.
In summary, irradiated water is carefully managed and treated to remove as much radioactivity as possible before it is stored or released. However, the long-term environmental impacts of releasing such water are not fully understood².
Source: Conversation with Bing, 2/22/2024
(1) Irradiated Nuclear Fuel | nuclear-power.com - Nuclear Power for Everybody. https://www.nuclear-power.com/nuclear-power-plant/nuclear-fuel/irradiated-nuclear-fuel/.
(2) Dirty, Dangerous, Expensive - The Verdict is in on Nuclear Power. - NRC. https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1210/ML12101A419.pdf.
(3) Nuclear power: how might radioactive waste water affect the environment?. https://theconversation.com/nuclear-power-how-might-radioactive-waste-water-affect-the-environment-159483.
(4) The ruined Fukushima nuclear plant leaked radioactive water, but none .... https://apnews.com/article/japan-fukushima-daiichi-radioactive-water-leak-790cfcde05c09a3f8b9c2d4bbaf5c210.
[back to lannie] So apparently there are "huge steel tanks" holding irradiated water that is not returned to the natural systems, like I said.
