Global Warming and Nuclear Power Plants

Nuclear Power plants require enormous amounts of water to cool reactors.   So engineers often put them at or near sea level, often literally at the seashore, where abundant water can be drawn in and discharged.

What happens if the sea level rises 200 feet?   Despite the scientific certainty of the early 50's, we have never developed a safe process for getting rid of spent nuclear fuel rods, our best solution is burying them miles under a mountain out in the desert somewhere.  What will happen to the Nuclear Power plants located near sea level all over the world if the sea levels continue to rise?  How will we deal with all the fuel rods?  Will the physical structure that is the reactor core become a source of radiation in sea water?

Here in California I am thankful we have largely rejected Nuclear Power development over the years.  Within the State there is only one active Nuclear Power Plant, Diablo Canyon on the Central Coast near San Luis Obispo.  Attempts to locate Nuclear Power plants at Bodega Bay, Sun Desert and on the Stanislaus river were defeated before construction was begun.   Plants at Humboldt Bay, San Onofre, Rancho Seco and Vallecitos were built and operated for some period of time, but decommissioned after mechanical problems (typically problems with getting cooling water to the reactor core) generated a lot of bad publicity.   Rancho Seco was closed after approval of the voters of a ballot proposition which pretty much closed the door to future efforts to locate Nuclear Power plants in California.

But virtually every one of the power plants in California were at low elevation, and are near major urban areas.

What is the risk?  Will the closed Rancho Seco contaminate the bay that will created in the area around Sacramento?  Will the closed San Onofre plant contaminate the shoreline that will be where much of coastal Southern California is now?  Will Diablo Valley contaminate the coast from Hearst Castle down to San Luis Obispo (beachfront property with a 200 foot sea level rise) Pismo Beach and beyond.

I don't know, and the problem is even sincere efforts by science to predict the risk have to be taken with a grain of salt.  Far too often science has made pronouncements about reality that turn out to be false.  Scientists, like all of us, are prone to forgot that, paraphrasing the immortal words of Donald Rumsfeld (quoting others before him) - we don't know what we don't know.