Mon August 11, 2003 08:44 AM ET
PARIS (Reuters) - "France called emergency talks on Monday on overheating at nuclear power plants as Europe's heatwave entered its second week, with officials torn between output cuts and allowing hotter water to pour into rivers.
After Paris sweltered through its hottest night since records began, a doctor in the city said more elderly people were dying from the heat and accused health authorities (of) doing little about the crisis. Temperatures have hit around 104 degrees Fahrenheit in the past few days, spelling trouble for France's nuclear reactors, many of which are cooled by river water. The plants pour water back into the rivers but only once it has been cooled to a certain temperature to protect the environment.
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Sounding the alarm over the fate of elderly people, the head of an association of emergency ward doctors said as many as 50 people had died in Paris and the surrounding areas in the past few days because of the heat. 'We've never seen people arriving sick in carloads like this, frequently with fevers of 42 or 43.5 degrees (107.6 to 110.3 Fahrenheit)', Patrick Pellous told France Info radio.
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Newspapers reported a leap in death rates at care homes for the elderly with funeral parlors saying they had no more room to take bodies into storage. With temperatures of 77.9 degrees Fahrenheit, Paris had its warmest night Sunday since records began 130 years ago, the Meteo France weather agency said. Carpets of leaves from trees withering in the heat gave the streets of Paris and other towns an autumn-like appearance."
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Reuters