Cooling Towers at Nuclear Power Plants: Benefits and Risks

[verygood]

Hi All:

My question is, why do some nuclear power plants have cooling towers and some don't? Why spend extra money on cooling towers if the feedwater can be cooled by the large body of water such as lake?

Thanks!

 

[phyzguy]

Dumping the heat into a body of water has been done, but there can be adverse environmental impact to the consequent warming of the water in the lake, so in that case cooling towers are used.

 

[Astronuc]

Hi All:

My question is, why do some nuclear power plants have cooling towers and some don't? Why spend extra money on cooling towers if the feedwater can be cooled by the large body of water such as lake?

Thanks!

Some coal and oil plants have cooling towers and others don't. It depends on the site and access to rivers, lakes, or sea/ocean, and whether or not the thermal burden on the body of water would create a problem.

 

[phyzguy]

Here's a recent New York Times article on this issue that can help you see some of the trade-offs.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010...scp=1&sq=indian point cooling tower&st=Search

 

[verygood]

thanks phyzguy and Astronuc, really appreciated!