Why do nuclear power plants spend huge amounts of $ to create hot water only to then send it to cooling towers
544513
They send it to cooling towers to turn the steam back into water, so they can take advantage, once again, of the mechanical energy involved in water expanding into steam.  Water expands a lot turning into steam, but when steam just turns into even hotter steam, the pressure increases, but not that much.\n\nSure they could be even more efficient by finding a good use for the extra heat, but that would be a bunch more machinery.
339414
some reactors don't need them b/c they're not cooled by water.  they have liquid metal reactors and also gas cooled reactors.  however.  however, in a boiling water reactor the water that turns the turbines never comes in contact w/the outside, it simply stays in the reactors in a continuous loop.  that heated water is used to boil other water which causes the turbines to turn.  pretty much all of the reactors used in the United States are PWR so they all will have cooling towers.
224064
Do you mean electrical power from a Nuclear power plant?\n\nIn a nuclear power plant, a reactor contains a supply of enriched uranium.  This radioactive material reacts with itself as it decays, producing heat.  This heat is used to heat water into steam, which turns a steam turbine, which turns a generator (much like in a coal burning plant).  Due to concerns over leaks of radioactive material, there is usually two steam/water loops, one that goes through the reactor and then through a heat exchanger to heat the water in the second loop that goes through the turbine.\n\nNewer reactor technology replaces the first water loop with helium gas instead, resulting in an even safer reactor design.
339908
A nuclear plant is efficient and very clean. They probably dont cost that much more than any other sort of plant. The disadvantages are straight forward, if anything goes wrong then they go very wrong.
10028
Quite a few years back during the cold war such a engine was designed, built, and Patented by Westinghouse.\nThis engine/reactor was smaller than a 55 gal. barrel and kinda cute.\nDo you know that back then, an idea being promoted, was a reactor in every home. (Big Business quashed this one)\nEveryday, reporting to work we workers seen a model displayed in the Lobby.\nThe technology is complete and viable, but I suspect the Carter Presidential Era put the brakes on using it and we never got a chance to use it due to the incorrect media generated danger of Nuclear Energy.
76200
Hot water is taken from hot springs and used to run turbines.  Normal use of coal or petroleum in making electricity involves boiling water and running the steam through a turbine, but in the case of geothermal heating, your water is already boiling.
771693
CanTexan is on the right path. More specifically, Nuclear Reactors create Heat. This heat energy creates a Pressure in the transfer medium (Water -> Steam) and is transferred to Rotational Mechanical Energy in a turbine. The attached Generator produces Electrical Energy.
1052065
IT IS NOT THE DRYER as mentioned in a previous answer\n\nIt is a reservoir for refrigerant.\n\nIn large refrigeration plants, like an industrial freezer or ice cream factory, there are many different machines running on one refrigeration  system. \n\nThese machines can be turned on or off individually so the load on the refrigeration system changes dramatically. As a valve opens on one machine the volume of the system increases, so more refrigerant is required. This comes from the accumulator, which is a reservior.\n\nWhen a machine is turned off, valves shut and the extra refrigerant goes back to the accumulator.\n\nLarge air conditioner (which are a single machine) and low production run equipement also use accumulators to allow for the difference between summer and winter.\n\nMass produced refrigerators do not have accumulators. Engineers work out exactly how many millilitres of refrigerant are required, how many milli metres of copper tubing are needed. They are designed as an exact unit. If you are making 1 million refridgerators and an accumulator costs $10, they just saved $10 000 000. If one gram of refrigerant costs $1 and 1 inch of copper tubing costs $1, they just saved another $20 000 000.  This is why household refrigerators do not have them.
514462
Unless you are letting it be run by a bunch of drunk ruskies, who think it is a good idea to pull out all the control rods and see how hot they can make the reactor... \n\nOther wise (truth be told) the ammount of radiation that is emited by a nuclear power plant is about the same as the ammount emited by a oil or coal power plant.
548869
Reactor : To generate heat. Thats where the radioactive stuff is.\n\nModerating Rods : to control the rate of heat release from the reactor.\n\nBoiler : To generate steam and to cool down the reactor. (Moderating rods are used assuming what is called a heat load on the boiler ie that its full of water and making steam. What happened at Three Mile Island was that they thought there was water in the boiler and there wasn't)\n\nTurbine : to make electricity from the steam\n\nCondenser : to turn the steam back to water (If the turbine is not a condensing turbine)\n\nPump : to pump the condensed water back into the boiler\n\nInstrumentation : measuring flows, pressures, temperatures, liquid levels etc, and lots and lots of it to let you know whats happening and keep the thing safe. (what happened at Chernoble is that the emergency instrumentation was "overridden" which means its didn't shut the plant down when it should have)\n\nConcrete : to keep everything isolated.\n\nA very simple overview, hope it was interesting.
648728
If they only want nuclear energy, why did they hide their program for a decade?  They want a bomb.  It makes them suddenly a big time player.  They want to intimidate the Gulf States and Israel.
8552
In many cases water is pumped into the wells in order to get the oil out.  I just hope we have a smooth transition from oil to solar and wind power, before we blow ourselves up with nuclear plants.
826107
Nuclear reactors are basically heat engines. As uranium fissions, the breaking apart of atoms releases energy, much of it in the form of heat, which can then be used to do work. In a nuclear-powered submarine, reactor heat produces steam to drive the turbines that provide the submarine's actual power. The development of compact, safe, and highly reliable pressurized water reactors for naval use in the early 1950s was the major technological achievement that made nuclear-powered submarines possible.\n\nHow Reactors Work\nNaval pressurized-water reactors include a primary coolant system and a secondary coolant system. The primary system circulates water, which is pressurized to keep it from boiling, in a closed loop. As water passes through the reactor, it is heated. It then goes through the steam generator, where it gives up its heat to generate steam in the secondary system. Finally, it flows back to the reactor to be heated again. Inside the steam generator, heat energy is transferred across a watertight boundary to the secondary system, also a closed loop. The unpressurized water in the secondary system turns to steam when heated. The steam, in turn, flows through the secondary system to the propulsion turbines, which turn the propellers, and to the turbine generators, which supply electricity. As it cools, it condenses to water and is pumped back to the steam generator.
389806
Several reasons:\n- The USA hasn't been building any new nuclear reactors since the Three Mile Island accident. \n- Fast breeder reactors are more complicated, more expensive than normal reactors\n- Sofar only experimental breeder reactors have been build. Look up Superphenix, for the problems the French had with one.
86147
Heat energy.\n\nThere is water (or a water mixture) cooling the core directly.  This water is radioactive.  You then have coils running in the water which have other water (protected from the radiation) coursing through them.  This water gets the heat transfered to it and turns to steam.  The steam runs turbines that turn a magnet core in the center of a copper coil that in turn produces electricity.\n\nHope this answers it for ya, feel free to email me!
639673
You are overlooking one vital fact.  Iran has the 2nd largest oil reserves in the World, and the majority of electricity within the World, including within Iran is still generated using oil based or carbon based power stations.\n\nIran needs nuclear power like the a fish needs a bicycle.\n\nThe basic reason why Iran wants a nuclear power station is to enrich uranium in order to make nuclear weapons.\n\nRussia has already offered to sell Iran cheap low-grade uranium, which is what is used in nuclear power stations. Iran has refused. Why ? Because low-grade is what is used in power stations, but can't be used for nuclear bombs. You need high-grade uranium which is a by-product of nuclear power generation. That's why Iran wants a power station. To make nuclear weapons, otherwise if it really wanted just to generate nuclear power it could have accepted Russia's offer of cheap low-grade uranium.
349291
Most forms of electricity generation involve heating water (burning fossil fuel, solar power, etc) to form steam that turns a turbine.  The excess heat releases a large amount of wasted energy, energy not used to produce electricity.  Hydroelectric power, on the other hand, uses only moving (cool) water to push the turbine, so no heat energy is wasted and no fuel is consumed.  The main problem with hydroelectric power is that rivers end up dammed to collect enough water to move the turbines; dams alter the natural hydrology of their environment by flooding low lying areas, slowing waterflow, and impeeding animal migration.