Cooling water wars on the High Rhine

• Nuclear power plants, like coal-fired power plants, rely on immense amounts of cooling water. For this reason, these power plants are usually built close to large water bodies such as the Rhine River. In the 1960s and 1970s, energy companies were tempted to build nuclear power plants without external cooling systems as the water resources of the Rhine were deemed to be sufficient. Especially Switzerland had ambitious plans for developing a nuclear power park, but France and Germany were equally interested in the nuclear exploitation of the Rhine. Switzerland, France, Germany and the Netherlands planned to build roughly around 25 nuclear power plants in the Rhine River basin (including the Aare and the Moselle), which would have made the Rhine one of the most nuclearised river basins in the world. The different national plans collided with each other at times and led to conflicts over water resources between the riparians.This paper deals with the problem of fair water allocation between Germany and Switzerland in the 1960s and 1970s. While Germany wanted to equally share the water of the Rhine for cooling purposes, Switzerland claimed the water of the Aare fully, which is the water richest tributary of the Rhine. The different perspectives on water ownership and the extent to which natural resources could be fairly distributed led to the establishment of a new cooling water regime on the High Rhine. In this article, the different risk perceptions as well as conflicts and debates of the individual actors are examined in more detail.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Teknikhistoria (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- History of Technology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Nuclear energy

water

thermal pollution

History of Science, Technology and Environment

Historiska studier av teknik, vetenskap och miljö

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)