To understand why, one must first know the process that produces electricity. In a nuclear power plant the radioactive metals heat and pressurized water to its boiling point. The reactor water then goes through a steam generator cooling it down so It can return to the reactor. Then, the steam from the steam rushes through a turbine connected to a generator. After the steam passes through the turbine, it is too cold to power a turbine, but too hot to return to the heat exchanger for cooling, so It passes through a cooling apparatus that pours the hot water over pipes of cold water from the environment. The Before the water returns to the environment, It goes through a cooling tower, which strips it from most of its heat. (This process is the same with coal power plants, but with no heat exchangers, and a coal fire Instead of a nuclear reactor.) While this system prevents radioactive materials from entering the environment, the water exiting the plant Is still hotter than the water entering it.
By Sam Fischman
