Why does Japan build so many nuclear power stations by the sea

[The One]

For a relatively small nation, Japan is disproportionately reliant on nuclear power.In 2008, after the opening of seven new nuclear reactors, the country became the third-largest nuclear power user in the world with 53 nuclear reactors, behind only France and the USA.Whatever you beleive experts say this is because Japan lacks its own oil supplies.For the past four decades, the country has made building up its nuclear energy a national priority.However, imported fuel still provides about two-thirds of its energy needs, with nuclear power making up the final third.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-1365536%2FJapan-earthquake-tsunami-Thousands-undergo-radioactive-screening-explosion.html&ei=Lt59TcHcFIbDhAfticneBg&usg=AFQjCNHy1GGk2W2q24N5vdopFMu_YYoBtg

[avid]

A lot of nuclear power facilities are by the sea, Sellafield, Sizewell, etc etc in the UK - something to do with discharging water.
As someone said in another thread, the 'winners' of this tragedy are the oil companies and the Saudis.....:flame:
Avid

[chelmostef]

To cool the reactor with out worry of running out of water... They have large pipes running out into the sea bed that cools the reactor. the sea temperature around these outlets can be several degrees higher and have been said to have small ecosystems around them as they can support different species due to the temperature difference, supposedly... I live on a river and they would come around and test to see how radioactive the water had become.. It would always be within a normal range what ever that is... There was more radiation given off by granite they said, somthing like granite, if I remember rightly...

But they are by the sea for a ready supply of water for cooling.

[jorr lundstrom]

On the westcoast of Sweden we have fishes belonging to the mediterranean

around those cooling water outlets.:cool:

[Hervé]

Manattees, around Florida, managed to survive this past harsh winter thanks to warmer waters around these power plants.

Many didn't make it.

[jjl]

On the westcoast of Sweden we have fishes belonging to the mediterranean

around those cooling water outlets.:cool:

Its because of the cooling systems and if they fail, they can do what they are doing. All the nuke plants in the US are all on rivers or coastlines.

[The One]

Isnt it amazing though with all this water the rods could still heat up to a temperature and burn into the ground when a neutron hits the nucleus of a uranium atom, fission occurs, tremendous amouts of heat are released ,although nuclear power plants have many advantages, they have some major problems. If anything were ever to go wrong inside the reactor like in japan, the results could be disasterous. One of the most dangerous difficulties is the possibility of a nuclear meltdown at one of japans power stations . This occurs when the core overheats in an uncontrolled manner the core simply melts. Such an event would release amazing amounts of radioactivity. There are many emergency cooling systems and back-ups to prevent the reactor from getting to meltdown temperatures but it seems even it went into complete meltdown not even the sea can protect it.