Question

How does a nuclear cooling tower work?

Answer 1

The process begins with a reactor pressure vessel which houses fuel assemblies. These fuel assemblies cause fission chain reactions, which release great amounts of heat. This process heats up water, which is transported to the heat exchanger. After different water is transformed into steam in a heat exchanger, it flows through a set of turbines that are attached to a steam generator, which creates energy. It then travels through a condenser, which converts it back to liquid form. The condenser acts as a reverse heat exchanger and cools the steam into water. The condenser takes in cold water and generates hot water. The cooling tower transforms the hot water back to cold water. Because there are three contained water cycles, (the primary which reacts directly with the fuel assemblies, secondary, which cools the primary, and tertiary, which cools the secondary) the water used in the condenser is not radioactive and can be released into the environment through cooling towers. The tower has fans that pump air into the bottom of the hyperboloid shaped structure and pumps air out of the top as well. This creates a fairly strong upward airflow. The heated water is then released at roughly 10% of the total height. As this water falls it is cooled by the upward airflow. About 2% of the water is transferred into steam and released out of the top. The rest cools and falls into a water basin at the bottom of the tower. This basin then feeds the condenser with cold water.

Answer 2

Answer:

In this type of tower, the warm water is circulated inside each tower and over structures that create droplets of water. At the same time, large fans draw the warm, moist air out the top of the cooling tower, lowering the temperature of the water more than 20 degrees.

Explanation: