{"id":1312,"date":"2022-11-14T16:29:18","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T15:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/?p=1312"},"modified":"2022-11-14T16:30:33","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T15:30:33","slug":"nuclear-power-in-times-of-climate-change-and-the-water-risks-around-it-environmental-history-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/2022\/11\/nuclear-power-in-times-of-climate-change-and-the-water-risks-around-it-environmental-history-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear Power in Times of Climate Change and the Water Risks Around It \u2013 Environmental History Now"},"content":{"rendered":"
Alicia Gutting is one of three doctoral students, active in the ERC-project Nuclearwaters at the Division and supervised by prof. Per H\u00f6gselius. In the thesis \u201eThe Nuclear Rhine\u201c she is researching transnational nuclear risk perception in Austria, Switzerland, France and Germany from the 1960s to 2018. In November the Environmental History Now blog published a text by Alicia on nuclear power, climate change and water risks focusing geographically on the Rhine river. Read an extract below, and get the link to the full text.<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Low water levels at sunset, Upper Rhine in Karlsruhe Maxau (2018, next to the Rhine bridge between Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate). Photo by Alicia Gutting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I decided to write my PhD thesis on the history of the nuclear Rhine in the summer of 2018, the front pages of the newspapers were dominated by news of the record summer and that several nuclear power plants on the Rhine had to be shut down. Headlines focused on the topics of the low water level of the Rhine and to what extent the use of cooling water can affect flora and fauna, but also the danger posed by a lack of cooling water for the operation of nuclear power plants. By then, I had already planned to take a closer look at the effects of heat waves on the operation of nuclear power plants. In the course of my research, I found out that while heat waves are a problem, the thermal load on water bodies caused by the recirculation of cooling water is an equally pressing issue.<\/p>\n

The Rhine River basin is, in relation to its flow per watershed, the most thermally polluted river basin globally mainly due to nuclear power plants. Thermoelectric power plants such as coal and nuclear power plants are major drivers of thermal pollution. Even though the European Union has set a limit of three degrees Celsius, the limit is exceeded by five degrees Celsius every year. The majority of thermal excess heat comes from nuclear and coal power plants that were built in the 1970s and 1980s.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

At the end of the 1960s, a planning boom began in the countries along the Rhine. Switzerland was one of the countries that wanted to roll out nuclear power in a big way and even slowly turned away from its role as the pioneer of hydropower. In addition, Germany and France also wanted to use the water resources of the Rhine for cooling purposes, which quickly led to conflicts on the fair distribution of cooling water. Switzerland, France, Germany, and the Netherlands planned to build roughly around twenty-five nuclear power plants in the Rhine River basin (including the Aare and the Moselle), which would have made the Rhine one of the most nuclearized river basins in the world.[2]<\/a>\u00a0Especially problematic was that energy companies were tempted to build nuclear power plants without external cooling systems as experts deemed the water resources of the Rhine to be sufficient.<\/p>\n

In Germany, nuclear accidents hardly played a role in the early risk perception of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. This is because the broad public knowledge about the extreme effects of a nuclear accident was almost non-existent. Instead, the focus was on the immediate effects of nuclear power plants that were unavoidable during operation, such as thermal pollution of water bodies. It was also in these early years that water management authorities were the most vocal administrative opponents of nuclear energy. Political supporters of nuclear energy tried to counteract the opposition by handing over water competences to the Federal Ministry of Atomic Energy. However, this decision did not lead to the desired decrease in criticism. In the 1970s, criticism regarding water became even louder when it came to the thermal pollution of the Rhine and the Weser.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: Nuclear Power in Times of Climate Change and the Water Risks Around It \u2013 Environmental History Now.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alicia Gutting is one of three doctoral students, active in the ERC-project Nuclearwaters at the Division and supervised by prof. Per H\u00f6gselius. In the thesis \u201eThe Nuclear Rhine\u201c she is researching transnational nuclear risk perception in Austria, Switzerland, France and Germany from the 1960s to 2018. In November the Environmental History Now blog published a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[34,21,17,35,77,36,167],"class_list":["post-1312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","category-the-division","tag-blog","tag-climate-change","tag-environmental-history","tag-history-of-technology","tag-infrastructure","tag-nuclear-history","tag-nuclearwaters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1352,"url":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/2023\/01\/breathing-swiss-air-a-research-stay-at-the-university-of-bern\/","url_meta":{"origin":1312,"position":0},"title":"Breathing Swiss air \u2013 A research stay at the University of Bern","author":"Sofia Jonsson","date":"2023-01-09","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Alicia Gutting, doctoral student at the Division The fun thing about writing a PhD thesis on the nuclear Rhine in Sweden is that it is actually necessary for me to visit the nuclear sites on the Rhine as well as local archives. My three supervisors and I therefore decided\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Division"","block_context":{"text":"The Division","link":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/category\/the-division\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/files\/2023\/01\/IMG_6001-625x469.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/files\/2023\/01\/IMG_6001-625x469.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/files\/2023\/01\/IMG_6001-625x469.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1371,"url":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/2023\/02\/new-publication-what-is-good-drinking-water-41-years-of-risk-perception-on-water-quality-in-the-vicinity-of-the-nuclear-research-centre-karlsruhe-1956-1997\/","url_meta":{"origin":1312,"position":1},"title":"New publication: What is good drinking water?: 41 Years of risk perception on water quality in the vicinity of the Nuclear Research Centre Karlsruhe, 1956\u20131997","author":"Sofia Jonsson","date":"2023-02-06","format":false,"excerpt":"Alicia Gutting is a PhD candidate in the ERC-project Nuclearwaters at the Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment. In her thesis \u201eThe Nuclear Rhine\u201c Alicia is researching transnational nuclear risk perception in Austria, Switzerland, France and Germany from the 1960s to 2018. In January Alicia was published in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Publications"","block_context":{"text":"Publications","link":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/category\/publications\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/files\/2023\/02\/gutting.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":179,"url":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/2017\/12\/erc-consolidator-grant-to-the-division\/","url_meta":{"origin":1312,"position":2},"title":"ERC Consolidator Grant to the Division","author":"Sofia Jonsson","date":"2017-12-19","format":false,"excerpt":"NUCLEARWATERS develops a groundbreaking new approach to studying the history of nuclear energy A few weeks ago Per H\u00f6gselius got the good news that he was one of two researcher from KTH to receive an ERC Consolidator grant. His project NUCLEARWATERS will get funding for five years and at least\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Research"","block_context":{"text":"Research","link":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/category\/research\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/files\/2017\/12\/Per20HC3B6gselius.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1030,"url":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/2021\/12\/exploring-nuclear-germany\/","url_meta":{"origin":1312,"position":3},"title":"Exploring nuclear Germany","author":"Achim Kl\u00fcppelberg","date":"2021-12-06","format":false,"excerpt":"This text was first published by Per H\u00f6gselius on the Nuclearwaters-Blog on 3 December 2021. Exploring nuclear Germany As the most recent wave of the corona pandemic rolls in over Europe, it seems that much of the past summer and autumn was a narrow window of opportunity for international travel.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/category\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Profile picture of Per H\u00f6gselius","src":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/files\/avatar\/perho","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1074,"url":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/2022\/01\/melina-antonia-buns-joins-the-division\/","url_meta":{"origin":1312,"position":4},"title":"Melina Antonia Buns joins the Division!","author":"Achim Kl\u00fcppelberg","date":"2022-01-24","format":false,"excerpt":"Nuclear-historical research at KTH is expanding! We are happy to announce that\u00a0Melina Antonia Buns\u00a0has joined us as a visiting post-doc researcher, based on a collaboration between NUCLEARWATERS, KTH\u2019s Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment and\u00a0The Greenhouse\u00a0at the University of Stavanger. Melina was recently awarded a major research grant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/nuclearwaters366060491.files.wordpress.com\/2022\/01\/melina-antonia-buns-1.jpg?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/nuclearwaters366060491.files.wordpress.com\/2022\/01\/melina-antonia-buns-1.jpg?w=350&h=200&crop=1 1x, https:\/\/nuclearwaters366060491.files.wordpress.com\/2022\/01\/melina-antonia-buns-1.jpg?w=525&h=300&crop=1 1.5x, https:\/\/nuclearwaters366060491.files.wordpress.com\/2022\/01\/melina-antonia-buns-1.jpg?w=700&h=400&crop=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1146,"url":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/2022\/04\/nuclearwaters-seminar-ecological-entanglements-nuclear-ruptures-and-the-affective-intimacies-of-bishnoi-resistance\/","url_meta":{"origin":1312,"position":5},"title":"NUCLEARWATERS Seminar: Ecological entanglements, nuclear ruptures, and the affective intimacies of Bishnoi resistance","author":"Sofia Jonsson","date":"2022-04-04","format":false,"excerpt":"The Nuclearwaters project is hosting the third seminar in its Nuclearwaters Seminar Series this term. 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