France powers down several nuclear reactors due to extreme heat

tekla•about 4 hours ago

So yeah in the mostly probable case that reading was not involved in many of the comments, they were not shut down for a technical issue but the govt stops them from discharging the water.

All the reactor works fine and would work fine. Gov makes choice to let people hurt

sugarkjube•about 3 hours ago

Indeed, it's mentioned in the article: "The measure is an environmental protection requirement to avoid discharging too much hot water into rivers already warming from the heatwave."

France (and to a lesser extent large parts of europe) is currently suffering from an exceptional heat wave.

dotcoma•about 6 hours ago

Doesn’t happen to solar plants.

Rygian•about 5 hours ago

Their nuclear reactor goes away every night though.

fragmede•about 4 hours ago

Obviously the solution to that is to put mirrors in space to reflect sunlight so their collectors also work at night.

sugarkjube•about 3 hours ago

Looks like someone had the same idea https://www.space.com/space-exploration/satellites/reflect-o...

sudb•about 6 hours ago

I was sure this couldn't be true but I couldn't find anything about high temperatures shutting down solar plants.

But I did find something about a predicted grid overload during a sunny period requiring a solar plant to go offline:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/12/solar-fa...

netsharc•about 4 hours ago

Just redirect the solar power to cool the water going out of the nuclear powerplant.

"Just".

My 4th grade physics knowledge is telling me this doesn't work, because the heat energy from the water still has to go somewhere...

selimthegrim•about 4 hours ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27782370

toomuchtodo•about 5 hours ago

Because they need more battery storage, which Europe is rapidly building.

sudb•about 5 hours ago

It can't come fast enough! I have a friend who works on battery storage in Europe and it sounds like an extremely busy time for them, which I'm glad for.

vitally3643•about 3 hours ago

It does when it rains, or it's too cloudy, or it snows, or the panels are dirty. Or, y'know, nighttime.

France powers down several nuclear reactors due to extreme heat

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