do discharges from nuclear power plants contribute to the warming of the Mediterranean?

At the end of August, Jean-Luc Mélenchon affirmed that he was “it is criminal that we give authorizations so that we discharge into the water the share of water that we will be able to consume to cool the power station, so that the nuclear power stations which discharge hot water contribute to the warming of the Mediterranean Sea“. What is true is that nuclear power plants use a significant amount of water to cool their reactors. This can be pumped into a river or the sea before being discharged hotter into its natural environment.

However, there is no French nuclear power plant discharging its waters directly into the Mediterranean. “Some power stations heat up the Rhône quite noticeably, which flows into the Mediterranean, but there is no nuclear power plant in France which directly heats the Mediterranean.“, explains Adrien Bidaud, lecturer at the Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble. It is false to assert that discharges from nuclear power plants contribute to global warming in the Mediterranean. However, this type of discharge can have an impact on local biodiversity. Whether in a river or in the sea.