Climate change is exposing nuclear power’s reliability problem

Photo: A team of international security experts visited Romania’s Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant in December 2024. The entire plant had to be shut down in August because drought brought water levels in the Danube River to record-low levels. Photo credit: “IPPAS Mission Romania (02818431)” by IAEA Imagebank (Martin Klingenboeck / IAEA) via Flickr, CC BY 2.0. Opinion article by Valerie Arnhold, M.V. Ramana. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – September 6, 2026.

One of nuclear energy’s biggest selling points is its claims of reliability. “Nuclear energy is the only large-scale power source that can be tapped in even the most extreme weather conditions, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” boasts the American energy company Constellation. “Nuclear power plants are very reliable, and can run for many months without interruption, providing large amounts of clean electricity, regardless of the time of day, the weather, or the season,” says the World Nuclear Association. At a public meeting in June, Keith Ammon, a pro-nuclear Republican member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, echoed these claims: “Nuclear doesn’t care about the weather,” he said. “It just runs.” […]

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