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Do you know for sure that it's a nuclear plant in the picture? I'm asking because those iconic cooling towers are also used for coal plants.

> The hyperboloid cooling towers are often associated with nuclear power plants,[1] although they are also used in some coal-fired plants and to some extent in some large chemical and other industrial plants.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooling_tower

Direct link to the picture from the article https://www.unenvironment.org/sites/default/files/styles/art...

Example cooling towers from a coal-fired power plant https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-eon-scholven-power-station...



Even if it's not a nuclear power plant it's still a cooling tower releasing only water vapor.


Some new designs release both water vapor and other gases in the same tower, but yeah, those look like cooling towers releasing just vapor.


It's a picture of a power station, the cooling towers are just the most noticeable feature.


And just to show what a nuclear plant can look like, [0] is a few miles away from me, and looks like [1]

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torness_Nuclear_Power_Station

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torness_Nuclear_Power_Station#...


It also looks like https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Torness_Nuclear_Powe... :)


Some of these plants use a local source of water for cooling, not the traditional cooling towers.

If it's inland or starved for water you need cooling towers.


The same picture is used to illustrate a coal power station elsewhere:

https://international.thenewslens.com/article/81575

It seems to be a coal station in China.




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