Friday, April 27, 2012

Cooling Towers: Part 2

Well, I had so much to say in cooling towers that it didn't all fit into one blog, so here is the second portion of it:

At the warm discharge area, it creates it's own environment of warm water for tropical sea life. For example, at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant, the warm water environment gets so full of life that a few times a season local aquariums and marine biologists safely capture some of the marine life to be moved to aquariums as new homes. Some of the common marine life found are sting rays and tropical fish.


 
Photo Courtesy of Google: Cownose ray found at the discharge of Oyster Creek



In using cooling systems such as these in nuclear plants, less harmful emissions are released than at other types of power plants. Not only do these cooling systems help protect our atmosphere, but they create their own tropical marine worlds too.