Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:05 pm
Braidwood power plant and zion both are without towers. Zion used lake michigan water for its condenser water. Braidwood uses water from Lake Braidwood. None of the water in the lakes or cooling towers in general comes in any nuclear contact, its just condenser water. Same as the building I used to work in downtown, we used water from the Chicago River to feed the condenser water side of our Carrier centrifugal chillers. It was cheaper than towers and it always worked, even in rain and very high humidity, whereas towers have a hard time releasing moisture into very moist air. It was also much simpler and efficient.