ResearchBuzz: FirehoseUniversity of Georgia: Storm surge virtual reality simulation designed to save lives. “Weather the Storm, a virtual reality simulation that takes users through the effects of storm surge to communicate its devastating and sometimes fatal consequences, is now available for download. The simulation aims to empower coastal residents to actively prepare for hurricanes.”
Cindy#SeaLevelRise with annual flooding will impact residents in the Vancouver area by year 2100. A 10% increase from previous estimates.
UN #IPCC projects 0.5 metre sea level rise by 2050.
#ClimateCentral reports: nearly all of Richmond (including YVR airport) and large parts of Delta and Surrey B.C. will lie below land flood levels. Even below existing dikes.
🌊 Must prepare for #StormSurges and #KingTides due to #ExtremeWeather ⛈️
New data shows increased flooding risk in Metro Vancouver
New research out of the U.S. reveals that B.C.’s coastlines could change dramatically by the end of the century as they are affected by global warming. As Sohrab Sandhu reports, experts say they've identified additional areas around the Lower Mainland vulnerable to flooding.
DoomsdaysCWSo, it seems the #SeabrookNuclearPlant survived the recent storms without incident, but if there was a problem, there is NO WAY nearby residents would have been able to evacuate. I came across this letter to the #NRC from the group #NoMoreFukushimas expressing their concerns about #ClimateChange and #NuclearPlants in 2012!
Concerns regarding the #SeabrookStation
No More Fukushimas letter to the NRC.
The Honorable Allison M. Macfarlane, Chair
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
11555 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852
November 8, 2012
Dear Chairwoman Macfarlane:
We appreciated receiving a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) response to the August 28, 2012, letter that we sent to the NRC concerning Seabrook Station relicensing. The NRC's response (October 17, 2012) came from Dennis Morey, Chief, Project Manager 1, Projects Branch Division of License Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (Docket No. 50-443).
In our letter, we highlighted a concern openly discussed NRC meeting April 26, 2012, on Seabrook relicensing held in Hampton, New Hampshire. Data indicates that due to climate change there could be an increase in #SeaLevels and storm surges that would affect the Seabrook plant. Obviously, the flooding of the Seabrook plant campus should be a cause for concern, especially since it the flooding is projected to occur within the timeframe of the relicensing period, 2030-2050.
In his response to our letter, Mr. Morey categorically rejected the idea that this rising sea level information was of any relevance to the relicensing of the Seabrook plant:
"Regarding your concerns about the current design-basis flood level calculations.... please note that these issues are not part of the NRC's review of a license renewal application. A license renewal review is not a re-review of the facility licensing basis; rather, it is focused on managing
the age-related degradation of passive systems, structures, and components to ensure they will fulfill their safety-related functions, as specified in the current licensing basis.
"The NRC has multiple processes to evaluate the adequacy of current plant operations and licensing bases. Should the NRC become aware at any time of information calling into question the continued safe operation of any nuclear power plant, including Seabrook Station, the NRC will take the appropriate actions as part of the agency's ongoing safety oversight, regardless of
whether those plants have sought or are seeking a renewed license."
In the twists and turns of bureaucratic thinking, Mr. Morey may be technically correct that climate-
change-related flooding is not an "age-related" deterioration artifact. But, Mr. Morey seems to brush off the fact that new global climate conditions could completely reconfigure the safety profile of the plant. We believe that whether or not climate-change-related flooding falls within "design-basis flood calculations" is a hairsplitting issue for bureaucrats. However, for those of who live near the plant it's a major safety issue. Therefore, if necessary, we respectfully recommend that NRC modify its relicensing concerns to include global climate change/rising sea levels in its license renewal framework.
Furthermore, Mr. Morey must know that the NRC has identified "alkali-silica reaction (ASR)" as a potential long-term threat to the reliability of the Seabrook plant and that structural degradation due to
#ASR is currently under the NRC's relicensing review. The flooding water will obviously raise levels of saltwater saturation, which will accelerate concrete degradation so, on that basis alone, the flooding should be within the Seabrook relicensing purview.
Finally, since Mr. Morey did not identify the steps the NRC plans to take to address flooding at the Seabrook plant, we surmise that the NRC does not consider flooding due to sea-level rise to be a problem. Our concern has escalated since researchers at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University in an October 31, 2012, piece in the Washington Post reported that they had conducted a study that assessed the vulnerability of #NuclearPlants flooding around the world.
The Stanford researchers collected information on plant height, #SeaWall height and the location of emergency power generators for 89 nuclear plants that lie next to water. They compared this to
historical information on high waves triggered by various sources, such as #earthquakes, #landslides and #hurricanes. The study found that the U.S. plants most vulnerable to inundation are the Salem and #HopeCreek plants on the New Jersey / #Delaware border; the #Millstone plant in Connecticut; and the Seabrook plant in New Hampshire (italics added). We strongly urge you to contact the researchers and obtain this invaluable information from them directly.
That said, we ask the NRC-as we did in our August letter-to review the risk that rising sea levels, #StormSurges or increased groundwater saturation of concrete poses to residents who live in the vicinity of the Seabrook nuclear power plant. As we have stated, we believe it is entirely appropriate to do so within the purview of the license renewal process. But, in the spirit of public safety, which we believe should be paramount-we urge the NRC to use whatever regulatory tools are needed to investigate this critical issue.
Sincerely yours,
Bruce Skud and Joanna Hammond
Co-founders, No More Fukushimas!
https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1232/ML12321A328.pdf
#SeaLevelRise #HamptonNH #SeabrookNH #NoNukes #RethinkNotRestart #ClimateCrisis #Flooding #ClimateCatastrophe #WaterIsLife #AlkaliSilicaReaction #GlobalSeaLevelRise #SeabrookNuclearPlant #MillstoneNuclearPlant #HopeCreekNuclearPlant #NewJersey #Connecticut
Ruth MottramTonight we expect #StormSurges in #WestDenmark and tomorrow eastern Jutland, the southern islands and North Zealand and especially in #Roskilde fjord
Important to follow local authorities instructions and check out #DMI's homepage for #SevereWeatherWarnings.
Today I have learnt a lot about the #oosterscheldekering - an outstanding piece of engineering for #stormSurges and environmental management - many thanks to Aimee Slangenof #NIOZ for organizing as part of the impact and adaptation part of the #SeaLevelRise project #PROTECTslr
A real thrill to be allowed to visit such an iconic location in person!
CelloMom On Cars"As #hurricanes get stronger, #StormSurges are bringing #saltwater to #farmland—and leaving salt there once waters evaporate.
#SoilSalinization occurs when seawater from floods eventually evaporates but leaves behind its salt content, which accumulates over years in the soil. With enough flooding, the soil on farms could become so salinized that crops can no longer be grown on that land."
Benjamin Carr, Ph.D. 👨🏻💻🧬How #climatechange can supercharge #hurricanes
Forecasting, #climate change, and coastal living are all changing how we experience hurricanes. Climate change is loading the dice on most #extremeweather phenomena. One of the clearest impacts of climate change is rising #temperatures and #sealevelrise making #stormsurges more severe and coastal #flooding more common and dangerous. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/08/31/1078720/how-climate-change-can-supercharge-hurricanes/ #climatecrisis
Forecasting, #climate change, and coastal living are all changing how we experience hurricanes. Climate change is loading the dice on most #extremeweather phenomena. One of the clearest impacts of climate change is rising #temperatures and #sealevelrise making #stormsurges more severe and coastal #flooding more common and dangerous. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/08/31/1078720/how-climate-change-can-supercharge-hurricanes/ #climatecrisis
Are #Coastal #Nuclear Power Plants Ready for #SeaLevelRise?
As shorelines creep inland and #storms worsen, nuclear reactors around the world face new challenges.
by John Vidal, August 21, 2018
"The outer defensive wall of what is expected to be the world’s most expensive nuclear power station is taking shape on the shoreline of the choppy gray waters of the Bristol Channel in western England.
"By the time the US $25-billion #HinkleyPointC nuclear station is finished, possibly in 2028, the concrete seawall will be 12.5 meters high, 900 meters long, and durable enough, the UK regulator and French engineers say, to withstand the strongest storm surge, the greatest tsunami, and the highest sea-level rise.
"But will it? Independent nuclear consultant #PeteRoche, a former adviser to the UK government and #Greenpeace, points out that the tidal range along this stretch of coast is one of the highest in the world, and that #erosion is heavy. Indeed, observers reported serious flooding on the site in 1981 when an earlier nuclear power station had to be shut down for a week, following a #SpringTide and a #StormSurge. However well built, says Roche, the new seawall does not adequately take into account #sealevel rise due to climate change.
"#Flooding can be catastrophic to a nuclear power plant because it can knock out its electrical systems, disabling its cooling mechanisms and leading to overheating and possible #meltdown and a dangerous release of #radioactivity. Flooding at the #FukushimaDaiichi plant in Japan as a result of the March 2011 tsunami caused severe damage to several of the plant’s reactors and only narrowly avoided a catastrophic release of radioactivity that could have forced the evacuation of 50 million people.
"In the #UnitedStates, where nine nuclear plants are within three kilometers of the #ocean and four reactors have been identified by Stanford academics as vulnerable to #StormSurges and sea-level rise, flooding is common, says David Lochbaum, a former nuclear engineer and director of the nuclear safety project at the Union of Concerned Scientists (#UCS).
"Lochbaum says over 20 flooding incidents have been recorded at US nuclear plants since the early 1980s. “The most likely [cause of flooding] is the increasing frequency of extreme events,' he says."
#ExtremeWeather #ClimateCrisis #NuclearPlants #UK #HinkleyPoint #CoastalFlooding
Full article:
https://hakaimagazine.com/features/are-coastal-nuclear-power-plants-ready-for-sea-level-rise/
The storm surge model that DMI ( @dmidk on the birdsite) developed is an amazing thing. Now also operating in Latvia.
If you live in a country with multiple bays and fjords vulnerable to #stormSurges and you don't have a forecast model like this running then you should be pushing for it.
More frequent severe storm surges are an early sentinel of #SeaLevelRise. Forecasting them is critical #ClimateAdaptation.
If you live in a country with multiple bays and fjords vulnerable to #stormSurges and you don't have a forecast model like this running then you should be pushing for it.
More frequent severe storm surges are an early sentinel of #SeaLevelRise. Forecasting them is critical #ClimateAdaptation.
DMI is the official #FloodWarning authority in #Denmark both for #StormSurges #CoastalFlooding + #Cloudbursts #FlashFloods
The #hydrological system is quite complex and under construction now, in collaboration with a lot of other agencies like #SDFI #KystDirektorat
