Eli5: Why are nuclear power plants smoke stacks shaped so differently from others?

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If it’s just for steam why make it different?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

They are shaped differently because they are being used for different things. A smokestack is used just to exhaust gasses up high enough to be away from people on the ground. The nuclear plant doesn’t have smokestacks though, they have *cooling towers*. The aim there is to draw in air at the bottom and make it carry heat out the top.

Hot water is sprayed into the tower and allowed to fall through the cool air, becoming more cool water when it lands at the bottom. Only a small amount escapes as the steamy mist out the top. This is the whole aim of the cooling towers, to make cool water which can then be used to cool the water that actually flows into the reactor.

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