Heat Waves Are a Growing Threat to Europe’s Nuclear Power Supply

Bloomberg.com · last updated August 8, 2025 – 8:21 AM

Heat waves across Europe are increasing the need for nuclear power plants to be taken offline, with the situation expected to worsen in the coming decades and few options for mitigation.

Weather-related nuclear outages, mainly caused by elevated temperatures of cooling water, increased threefold in the period from 2010 to 2019, compared with 1990 to 2009, according to a study published in Energy Economics. Due to climate change, the intensity and length of these heat waves is expected to increase.

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