Tsunamis and sea rise in the North and Baltic Sea and potential consequences for nuclear facilities

Weather-related hazards are among the most frequent causes for disturbances of critical infrastructures. Flooding, tsunamis and sea level rise are examples of major threats to all types of nuclear facilities located at the seaside or at rivers. We report about exemplary investigations concerning weather-related hazards for the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Climate change is expected to increase the already known threats but, in the long term, may also lead to new kinds of hazards. A possible future climate evolution, e.g. from warm (interglacial) to cold (glacial) periods, is not only a topic for seaside industrial facilities but also of concern in the long term safety assessment of deep geological nuclear waste repositories, in particular for high level waste, on the Baltic sea.