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Why is ocean water used in nuclear reactors?

Best Answers

In order to understand why seawater is used in nuclear reactors, a short primer on power plants is requred. Both coal fire and nuclear power plants rely on massive quantities of heat to boil massive quantities of water. For nuclear power, this is in simplest terms, a constantly exploding nuclear bomb that is contained in the "reactor". read more

Nuclear power plants generate one fifth of the electricity produced in the United States. The nuclear power cycle uses water in three major ways: extracting and processing uranium fuel, producing electricity, and controlling wastes and risks. Table 1 shows water use in selected nuclear power activities. read more

A pressurized heavy-water reactor (PHWR) is a nuclear reactor, commonly using unenriched natural uranium as its fuel, that uses heavy water (deuterium oxide D2O) as its coolant and neutron moderator. The heavy water coolant is kept under pressure, allowing it to be heated to higher temperatures without boiling, much as in a pressurized water reactor. read more

Further Research

Cooling Power Plants
world-nuclear.org