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For all the arguments made by opponents of nuclear power – that it is uneconomical, unsafe and a terrorist target – its biggest threat may come from water scarcity.
The availability of water impacted Exelon Nuclear’s decision to select Matagorda County – not Victoria County – as its primary site for a new nuclear plant.
Victoria County is listed as the secondary site – at a proposed location about 20 miles south of Victoria on 11,500 acres just off U.S. Highway 77 South.
“Water is a peak consideration,” said Craig Nesbit, an Exelon spokesman.
Nesbit said that if the company builds a plant in Victoria County, it would also have to build an expensive, several-thousand-acre lake to supply water to the plant and that nearby river water would act as a minor supplement.
In Matagorda County, the company would have easy access to bay water.
Nuclear power plants require a lot of water – between 10,000 and 32 million gallons of water a day, depending on the plant type. And this area’s rivers and aquifers are in high demand.
“Where’s the water going to come from?” asked Garrett Engelking, general manager of the Victoria County Groundwater Conservation District, about the notion of a plant built here. “Is there enough here to sustain it? I think we do have enough water currently, but that depends on how other industries grow here.”
Water in nuclear plants is used to cool the reactor and to condense steam into water. Most of that water is returned to the environment – to a river or lake – but some is lost to evaporation.
Enough freshwater is used daily by U.S. nuclear plants to fill 226,667 Olympic-size swimming pools. Just one plant can use enough water to fill 53 such pools. Victoria, for reference, uses enough water a day to fill 16 pools.
Scientists who believe global warming exists say Texas is only going to become drier.
The Christian Science Monitor reported that extended heat waves in the U.S. and Europe have historically lowered “water levels in the lakes and rivers that many nuclear plants depend on to cool their reactors.”
If a plant were built in Victoria County, would it affect those downstream?
“We will have to be able to demonstrate that it doesn’t impact them,” said Nesbit, the Exelon spokesman.
But there’s no avoiding nuclear power’s impact on water. The U.S. Geological Survey says that production of electrical power requires the largest uses of water in the U.S. and worldwide.
Nesbit said that water used by these plants and then returned to the environment does not contact radioactive material. And the necessary manmade lake would be used to cool outgoing water –and these lakes often serve as recreation areas for the public.
“It screws up the biosphere in your region,” said Jim Riccio, a nuclear policy analyst for Greenpeace, an international nonprofit that opposes nuclear power. “Besides, you have a handful of reactors out there leaking radioactive material into groundwater,” he said.
A report published in part by the Nuclear Information and Resource Service notes that all sorts of marine life is harmed or killed “by once-through systems used to remove waste heat at nuclear power stations.”
Riccio said this impacts everyone downstream – including the commercial fishing industry.
But Adrian Heymer, a Nuclear Energy Institute senior director of new plant development, said the nuclear industry is highly regulated and that plants are equipped with sophisticated monitoring systems.
“Since Three Mile Island, we’ve really reinvented the industry,” he said. “We have had some minor events, but the process is transparent, and the public was well-informed.”
During construction, managers submit environmental impact reports that detail potential impacts on water, which are strictly reviewed, he said.
If you live downstream from, or near, a plant, you’d know about water contamination before it impacted you, Heymer said. The plant notifies city and county governments and the public is contacted via emergency alert networks.
About seven years ago, Matagorda County’s nuclear plant – the South Texas Project – had a “minor” leak that was discovered and contained quickly, Bay City Mayor Richard Knapik said.
That event didn’t require an immediate public alert.
“I think, as the world becomes more and more dependent on fossil fuels, we have to explore energy alternatives,” Knapik said. “Nuclear energy is safe, efficient and green.”
Gabe Semenza is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6519 or gsemenza@vicad.com.