Comparative water scarcity footprint study of two nuclear power plants

Abstract

This study compares the Life Cycle Assessment based Water Scarcity Footprint of produced energy unit in two nuclear power plants in the Czech Republic between 2005 and 2015. Primary data has been used to allocate impacts to the core processing stage. Although the real total amount of water consumption in both power plants is similar, the water scarcity footprint in Temelín nuclear power plant is of approximately 8.9 m3 H2Oeq per MWh lower than in Dukovany power plant. The cooling water has the most significant contribution to the freshwater availability impact category. Evaporation from reservoirs which are a part of water management of the individual power plants has lower, but not inconsiderable, contribution to the water consumption. In the case of Temelín nuclear power plant, the loss caused by evaporation from Hněvkovice reservoir is of approximately 6.5% of the difference between withdrawal and discharge of the power plant. In the case of Dukovany nuclear power plant, evaporation from Dalešice - Mohelno reservoir is of even around 11%.