Nuclear Power outed in Ontario, for speeding-up Global Warming, and Great Lakes water depletion [View All]

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2008/07/21/02482.html

Nuclear Power outed in Ontario, for speeding-up Global Warming, and Great Lakes water depletion

by Ziggy Kleinau

Much has been made of the power contained in a single uranium fuel bundle used in Ontario's CanDU reactors to produce electricity. It is supposed to be able to generate as much electricity as 380 tonnes of coal or 1,800 barrels of oil (Canadian Nuclear Association website: Nuclear Facts). Compared to the burning of fossil fuels to produce the steam to generate electric power the fuel bundle undergoes a fission process, splitting the uranium atoms to produce heat to fabricate the steam to drive turbines connected to the generators in a complicated process of electricity generation.

As a matter-of-fact, so much heat is produced by the fission-activated neutrons that to keep the fuel from uncontrolled meltdown, “ there need to be huge amounts of cooling water drawn from Lakes Huron and Ontario.

The 6 operating Bruce Power reactors, by the way, are drawing close to 17 million litres of lake water A MINUTE(!) to keep the process from overheating (Golder Associates Ltd. Consultants). What happens to this cooling water? Most of it is discharged back to the lake, but not in the same condition. It goes back out up to 12 degrees Celsius warmer. This so-called thermal plume has been heating up the Lakes for decades, 24/7, 365 days a year.

Very little ice has been forming on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay over successive, even colder, winters, resulting in lake water evaporation over the full 12 months instead of the normal 8 months of ice-free water. Without ice cover solar irradiation will also have the effect of additional warming of the open waters, while ice cover would have reflected the sun's rays. No wonder lake levels continue to drop, now at record low levels, affecting the economy of shipping companies and marinas, with waters getting warmer, resulting in increased evaporation and cloud forming.

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