> France is still shutting down its plants because the rivers are too warm in the summer.

That's because French nuclear power plants are designed to be directly cooled by river water instead of using cooling towers.

The biggest nuclear power plant in the US (Palo Verde Generating Station in Arizona) is cooled by evaporating the treated wastewater, in the desert.

▲

ViewTrick1002 3 hours ago | parent [-]

All these extra methods of preserving water adds cost, to a technology where paid off plants are struggling. Let alone ruinously expensive new builds.

▲

samus 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

At least these installations don't need to deal with radioactive material directly, so they will have the same financial infact as similar improvements to, say, coal-fired power plants.

▲

cyberax 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

They don't materially affect the cost of a nuclear power plant. Cooling towers or evaporating ponds are not expensive. Coal and gas power plants also use them.

You just can't easily retrofit them onto an _existing_ power plant.

▲

ViewTrick1002 2 hours ago | parent [-]

If they were essentially free all plants would be built with them. Evidently they are not free.

	▲	cyberax 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> If they were essentially free all plants would be built with them. Pretty much all the new thermal power plants are (including biomass-burning plants), except in places where cool water is not scarce. It's weird to glomp onto that idea, as if it's some kind of a fatal flaw of nuclear power.