Pure water is vitally important to the cooling process of nuclear reactors.
You will be aware, if you watch the news, that the huge Zaporizhia power plant has been made highly vulnerable as it is in a war zone. Since the Russians took control most of it is shut down and generators keep it running.
VIENNA, June 6 (Reuters) – The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has enough water to cool its reactors for “several months” from a pond located above the reservoir of a nearby dam that has broken, the U.N. atomic watchdog said on Tuesday, calling for the pond to be spared.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/after-dam-bursts-iaea-says-zaporizhzhias-cooling-pond-must-be-protected-2023-06-06/
Worldwide plans for producing clean energy by building nuclear power plants must consider the impact of climate change. I have already pointed out that plans now have to factor in sea levels rising faster than expected. But a major factor to be considered is access to clean freshwater supplies to cool the reactors.
The Zaporizhia Power Plant is a 1980s VVER V-320 employing 6 pressurised water reactors. Ukraine has other reactors on which it depends for clean electricity. The Zaporizhia plant is the largest in Europe.
In 2022 Rosatom took over the running of the plant.
Many Nuclear Reactors have been built using water to cool their cores, whilst some use gas or metals.
New designs will have to innovate further to consider how to maintain cooling if water or gas are not in sufficient supply. There can be no basis for building a water cooled reactor without a vast pure water supply.
However, existing reactors using water, may find the water stress, which is a daily event in many parts of the world, will push alarm bells for the industry.
In the UK, Sizewell C new build is a case in point:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/27/nuclear-power-station-sizewell-c-water-suffolk
The article explains:
But fresh or “potable” water will also be needed – first, to cool the two reactors, and then, just as importantly, to cool the irradiated fuel once it has been removed from the reactors. For this, absolutely pure water is essential. Sizewell B uses about 800,000 litres of potable water per day; Sizewell C, with its twin reactors, will need more than 2m litres per day, and as much as 3.5m litres per day during construction.
Alternatives to generating sufficient energy from wind and photovoltaic cells has been helpful but not the whole answer in Australia as climate change is an urgent challenge:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2588912518300080
And France, when drought dried up the rivers, they had to reduce electricity from many reactors:
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