Weakest 'Drop Like Flies' As 50 Die In French Heatwave

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 8-12-2003 | Philip Delves

[blam]

"My daughter just got back from central 'bama 107 with 85% humidity, the Euro's are effete."

Tell me. Mobile County had the wettest July since records have been kept. (I guess our four year drought is over, lol)

[BOBTHENAILER]

Italy has already experienced extensive power cuts, caused in part by countries such as France restricting the supply of power to their neighbour to provide for their own needs.

Sounds worse than Iraq. A veritable European quagmire I tell ya'.

[NativeNewYorker]

Obviously, all of our prayers for the French to "go to hell" have been answered.

I happened to be in Paris in mid-June (it was NOT voluntary, I assure you). It was damn hot then, and not a breeze to be had. My hotel and the major tourist traps were ac'ed, but in between, it was brutal.

[FITZ]

There was not even the slightest breeze to relieve the furnace conditions.

Why don't they at least have fans?

[lawdude]

IT'S ALL BUSH"S FAULT!

[meyer]

The power capacity over there is limited anyway (and DC besides), but the plants are on the rivers and with a drought and higher temps, there's less water and it's hotter. The article explains that the nuclear plants use river water to cool the reactors.

Well, the power over there is AC, actually. Generally 50 cycle AC as opposed to 60 that we use here. Their florescent lights flicker a little more than ours. :)

Anyway, the cooling issue is important, as you say - the steam, once its given up most of its thermal and mechanical energy in the turbine needs to be condensed back into water to be pumped back into the boiler (or reactor in the nukes), but the cooling isn't as effective when the cooling water is warmer (and especially when there's less of it). Many coal and nuke generators are de-rated in the hotter months, as are turbine engines which rely on cooler, denser intake air for their combustion. I've seen reductions of 10-15% on some generators. France's system, A/C load notwithstanding, wasn't built with 100 degrees in mind.

[FITZ]

It was 106 here over the weekend and I didn't think it was bad. A little warm but nothing that would kill anyone ---and I didn't sit an airconditioned rooms ----just ceiling fans and open car windows.

[SouthernFreebird]

Being from the South this is hard to understand. Wheres a creek, jump in, cool off, take a drink. c'mon people.

[Chi-townChief]

So are the French paying for avoiding the heat in Iraq only to have it come to their land?

[blam]

"Being from the South this is hard to understand. Wheres a creek, jump in, cool off, take a drink. c'mon people."

Yup. When I was a kid we had a creek on an old dirt that we named 'cold creek'. I was by there a couple weeks ago for the first time in 30+ years and the road is paved and the creek has a county sign, 'Cold Creek', neat. Made my day.

[FreedomCalls]

There was not even the slightest breeze to relieve the furnace conditions.

I realize that most French don't have air-conditioning, but are they so stupid as to not know what a fan is? Or perhaps the reporter wants it to sound worse than it is.

[JackOfVA]

I read somewhere a day or two ago that the plants were limited to cooling water discharge of 25C for environmental reasons but that some plants were now running 29-30C with waivers. The environmental types were demanding that the plants shut down, rather than exceed the 25C limit.

Also read that the outside of the containment vessel was another limiting factor, with a "not to exceed" 50C rating and some plants were in the 49C range and that the plant operators were spraying the outside of the containment vessels with water from fire hoses.

I've spend a lot of time in Europe in hot summers and once those masonary building heat up, it's miserable to sleep.

Jack

[rockfish59]

Actually, I've never seen a fly drop dead. I usually have to chase the bastards around with the swatter!

[lepton]

But with the heatwave driving up outside water temperatures, plants have been forced to cut output because of limits on the temperature of the water they release.

Because the "natural" water temperature is higher than the "heated" temperature, perhaps?

[meyer]

I read somewhere a day or two ago that the plants were limited to cooling water discharge of 25C for environmental reasons but that some plants were now running 29-30C with waivers. The environmental types were demanding that the plants shut down, rather than exceed the 25C limit.

I can beleive that - the environazis are that way. People are dying - screw the environmentalists in this case. Plus, they're wrong anyway.

Also read that the outside of the containment vessel was another limiting factor, with a "not to exceed" 50C rating and some plants were in the 49C range and that the plant operators were spraying the outside of the containment vessels with water from fire hoses.

Can't speak with much authority on the outside temperature constraints of the containment building, but the approach of using fire hoses isn't new - I remember more than one occasion where I had the fire department spraying the radiators on an electric transformer to cool it.

I've spend a lot of time in Europe in hot summers and once those masonary building heat up, it's miserable to sleep.

Yes, I recall brick/masonry buildings holding their heat, once they get warmed up. Dang bricks will radiate for days, which is good in the fall, but not in the summer.

[Zack Nguyen]

[Snicker] The dry humor on FR is the best.

[Jack Wilson]

What a sight, all those bodies slumped over their hollandaise...

[lepton]

They wouldn't normally need fans for the same reason they wouldn't normally need AC. I've never lived in Paris, but southern Germany only got to 80 for a couple of days each summer, every other year.

[FITZ]

Yes, I recall brick/masonry buildings holding their heat, once they get warmed up. Dang bricks will radiate for days, which is good in the fall, but not in the summer.

That seems to be a problem with urbanization ---- here it's actually hotter in town because of all the concrete and pavement than it is in the country where there are fields and trees absorbing much of the heat and sun. I wonder if French in the countryside are even dying at all.

[rockfish59]

This is 132 feet tall and was built as a tribute to the hottest temp ever recorded in Death Valley (132*)

So quit whining ya' bunch of surrender monkeys!