While the heat wave continues in Europe, a record drought in France has forced some nuclear power plants to significantly reduce their output, causing serious impacts on power supply and agricultural production.
In the western and southern parts of Europe, hot and dry conditions have continued since around June this year, and among them, in France, a series of ``heat waves'' in which high temperatures last for several days throughout the day are occurring one after another. .
As a result, the average monthly rainfall in July was 9.7mm, which is more than 10% of the 90.8mm in the same month last year, the lowest for July since the statistics began to be taken. I was.
About 100 municipalities in the country are running out of drinking water, and the government has set up an emergency response team, calling it 'the worst drought in France's history.'
In Paris, the operation of fountains that do not reuse water has been stopped, and citizens are calling for water conservation, such as using showers instead of storing hot water in baths.
In addition, at nuclear power plants that use river water to cool their reactors, the warm water discharged from the power plant raises the temperature of the river water. The power supply is also affected, such as a significant drop in power consumption.
In addition, the drought has also hit agricultural production such as wheat and milk, and the government expects this year's wheat production to drop by more than 7% compared to the previous year.
The drought in France is expected to continue into the next week and beyond, with fears of further spread.
Dairy farming Water and nutrient deficiencies reduce milk volume and quality
The record drought is also seriously impacting dairy farming areas.
Loubouche Saint-Nicolas is a village of about 300 people in the south of France.
Groundwater has decreased greatly due to the heat and dryness from June.
The village arranges trucks for the residents' drinking water, and three times a week, a total of about 300,000 liters of water is secured from other areas and transported to the water supply facility.
Husband and wife dairy farmer Guillaume Julien and his wife Céline have 80 dairy cows. I'm carrying water with a tractor from the emergency.
Bait is also affected.
Due to the drought, the pasture for cattle did not grow well.
Grain prices are soaring, and it is difficult to buy new feed, so we are using the winter stockpile.
Still, due to lack of water and nutrients, the amount of milk that can be obtained from cows has decreased by about 20%, and the quality is also declining.
Mr. Julian said, "It is a very devastating situation and everyone is discouraged because of the drought. We need to find a solution somehow."
Catching up with power supply
The record drought has also hit France's electricity supply hard.
Rivers and reservoirs across the country have run out of water so much that hydroelectric plants are unable to get enough water to turn their turbines, and some have even shut down.
In the southern Garonne river basin, almost no rain fell from May, which should have been the wettest month, and the output of the 13 hydroelectric power plants dropped significantly, with some generating about 30% less electricity.
In addition, nuclear power plants, which provide about 70% of the country's electricity, are also affected.
Many French nuclear power plants use river water to cool their reactors and then return them to the river.
However, due to the strong sunlight and the rising water temperature in rivers due to the warm water discharged from the nuclear power plant, at least six power plants have been forced to drastically reduce their output to limit their environmental impact. Of these, there are days when the output of the nuclear power plant along the Garonne River drops below 30%.
In addition to regular inspections, problems have been found in some of the French nuclear power plants, resulting in an unusual situation in which 30 out of 56 reactors have stopped operating. I'm calling