re what do nuclear site s cooling towers do lots of pretty good stuff about how the huge towers near most nuclear power plants are there to cool the used steam back into near ambient temperature water deleted water as i recall the water isn t as hot thermodynamically in many fossil fuel plants and of course there is less danger of radioactive contamination actually fossil fuel plants run hotter than the usual boiling water reactor nuclear plants there s a gripe in the industry that nuclear power uses vintage steam technology so it s more important in nuclear plants to get the cold end of the system as cold as possible hence big cooling towers as a point of info some of the early nuclear power plants in this country used the fission pile as a first stage to get the water hot and then had a second stage fossil fuel step to get the water actually steam very hot i remember seeing this at con edison s indian point power plant which is about miles north of nyc and built more or less dannyb panix com all the usual disclaimers apply whatever they may be
