IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v203y2025ics0301421525001387.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Atomic rivers. The (Un)sustainability of nuclear power in an age of climate change

Author

Listed:
  • Gutting, Alicia
  • Högselius, Per
  • Burkhardt-Holm, Patricia

Abstract

The sustainability of nuclear energy amidst climate change and environmental regulations poses critical challenges, particularly in European contexts where major rivers like the Rhine, the Danube, and the Rhône are experiencing declining water levels and rising temperatures. We scrutinise the operational difficulties nuclear power plants encounter, arising from insufficient cooling water and environmental mandates that prevent the discharge of overly warm cooling water into rivers. These conditions have led to partial or full shutdowns of nuclear facilities across France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Romania, and other countries, emphasising the tension between nuclear energy as a low-carbon solution and its environmental impacts. We explore the concept of sustainability in the context of riverine nuclear energy from three angles: technical challenges posed by water scarcity, regulatory constraints on cooling water temperatures, and the ecological impacts of thermal discharges on riverine ecosystems. Our analysis reveals an emerging contradiction between ensuring electricity supply and adhering to environmental protection, highlighting the need for a reevaluation of nuclear energy's role in a future sustainable energy landscape.

Suggested Citation

  • Gutting, Alicia & Högselius, Per & Burkhardt-Holm, Patricia, 2025. "Atomic rivers. The (Un)sustainability of nuclear power in an age of climate change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:203:y:2025:i:c:s0301421525001387
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114631
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421525001387
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114631?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christian von Hirschhausen & Björn Steigerwald & Franziska Hoffart & Claudia Kemfert & Jens Weibezahn & Alexander Wimmers, 2023. "Energie- und Klimaszenarien gehen paradoxerweise von einem starken Ausbau der Atomenergie aus," DIW Wochenbericht, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 90(44), pages 609-617.
    2. Pierre-Benoit Joly & Claire Le Renard, 2021. "The past futures of techno-scientific promises [History of the Future: Paradoxes and Challenges]," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 48(6), pages 900-910.
    3. Kopytko, Natalie & Perkins, John, 2011. "Climate change, nuclear power, and the adaptation-mitigation dilemma," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 318-333, January.
    4. Kristin Linnerud & Torben K. Mideksa & Gunnar S. Eskeland, 2011. "The Impact of Climate Change on Nuclear Power Supply," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 149-168.
    5. Raptis, Catherine E. & Pfister, Stephan, 2016. "Global freshwater thermal emissions from steam-electric power plants with once-through cooling systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 46-57.
    6. Ali Ahmad, 2021. "Increase in frequency of nuclear power outages due to changing climate," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 6(7), pages 755-762, July.
    7. Aaron T. Wolf, 1999. "Criteria for equitable allocations: the heart of international water conflict," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 23(1), pages 3-30, February.
    8. Wang, Fan & Wang, Jing & Gu, Jibao, 2024. "Perceived information quality, trust in government, and local acceptance of nuclear power in China," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jeong, Minsoo & You, Jung S., 2022. "Estimating the economic costs of nuclear power plant outages in a regulated market using a latent factor model," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    2. SarahM. Jordaan & Afreen Siddiqi & William Kakenmaster & AliceC. Hill, 2019. "The Climate Vulnerabilities of Global Nuclear Power," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 19(4), pages 3-13, November.
    3. Grant R. McDermott & Øivind A. Nilse, 2014. "Electricity Prices, River Temperatures, and Cooling Water Scarcity," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 90(1), pages 131-148.
    4. Grace Dehner & Mark K. McBeth & Rae Moss & Irene van Woerden, 2023. "A Zero-Carbon Nuclear Energy Future? Lessons Learned from Perceptions of Climate Change and Nuclear Waste," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-16, February.
    5. Dirk Rübbelke & Stefan Vögele, 2013. "Short-term distributional consequences of climate change impacts on the power sector: who gains and who loses?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 116(2), pages 191-206, January.
    6. Solveig Glomsrød & Taoyuan Wei & Torben Mideksa & Bjørn Samset, 2015. "Energy market impacts of nuclear power phase-out policies," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 20(8), pages 1511-1527, December.
    7. Guénand, Yann & Gailhard, J. & Monteil, C. & Peton, P.-Y. & Martinet, C. & Collet, L. & Bono, C., 2024. "Climate change impact on nuclear power outages - Part I: A methodology to estimate hydro-thermic environmental constraints on power generation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    8. Dongchang Kim & Shinyoung Kwag & Minkyu Kim & Raeyoung Jung & Seunghyun Eem, 2025. "Identifying and Prioritizing Climate-Related Natural Hazards for Nuclear Power Plants in Korea Using Delphi," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-19, June.
    9. Matteo Vagnoli & Francesco Di Maio & Enrico Zio, 2018. "Ensembles of climate change models for risk assessment of nuclear power plants," Journal of Risk and Reliability, , vol. 232(2), pages 185-200, April.
    10. Collet, L. & Gailhard, J. & Guénand, Y. & Monteil, C. & Oueslati, B. & Peton, P.-Y. & Martinet, C. & Bono, C., 2025. "Future nuclear power outages in a changing climate - A case study on two contrasted French power plants," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    11. Bogmans, Christian W.J. & Dijkema, Gerard P.J. & van Vliet, Michelle T.H., 2017. "Adaptation of thermal power plants: The (ir)relevance of climate (change) information," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1-18.
    12. Brunner, L.G. & Peer, R.A.M. & Zorn, C. & Paulik, R. & Logan, T.M., 2024. "Understanding cascading risks through real-world interdependent urban infrastructure," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    13. Hughes, Larry & Ranjan, Ashish, 2013. "Event-related stresses in energy systems and their effects on energy security," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 413-421.
    14. Kim, Gungyu & Kwag, Shinyoung & Eem, Seunghyun & Hahm, Dae-gi & Park, Jin Hee, 2025. "Probabilistic safety assessment of off-site power system under typhoon considering failure correlation between transmission towers," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 254(PB).
    15. Wealer, B. & Bauer, S. & Hirschhausen, C.v. & Kemfert, C. & Göke, L., 2021. "Investing into third generation nuclear power plants - Review of recent trends and analysis of future investments using Monte Carlo Simulation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    16. J. Micha Steinhäuser & Klaus Eisenack, 2015. "Spatial incidence of large-scale power plant curtailment costs," Working Papers V-379-15, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2015.
    17. Shadman, F. & Sadeghipour, S. & Moghavvemi, M. & Saidur, R., 2016. "Drought and energy security in key ASEAN countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 50-58.
    18. Hao, Zhaojun & Di Maio, Francesco & Zio, Enrico, 2023. "A sequential decision problem formulation and deep reinforcement learning solution of the optimization of O&M of cyber-physical energy systems (CPESs) for reliable and safe power production and supply," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    19. Wim De Schepper & Christophe Vanschepdael & Han Huynh & Joost Helsen, 2020. "Membrane Capacitive Deionization for Cooling Water Intake Reduction in Thermal Power Plants: Lab to Pilot Scale Evaluation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-18, March.
    20. Klimenko, V.V. & Fedotova, E.V. & Tereshin, A.G., 2018. "Vulnerability of the Russian power industry to the climate change," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 1010-1022.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:203:y:2025:i:c:s0301421525001387. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.