Its sweltering citizens rushed for the beaches, its forests burned and some of its nuclear plants had to be closed down because the river water to cool them was insufficient.

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"You have to get the recirculation system up and functioning so they can cool that water in the normal way, " said Gary Was, a nuclear engineering professor at the University of Michigan and a CNN consultant.

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Spain's oldest nuclear power station - the Santa Maria de Garona plant - was shut down on Sunday because the Ebro river water became too hot to cool its reactor.

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The creak of ancient waterwheels turning in the cool water of the Orontes, which snakes through this city of 800, 000, was the only sound in the still hot air during the daytime last weekend.

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In cool, blustery conditions on a course with water hazards at nearly every turn, the strategy was to keep the head down and keep big numbers off the scorecard.

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