Photo of Turkey Point showing cooling canals – virtual radiator

ByRod Adams

I found the below photo of FP&L’s Turkey Point power station that gives a good representation of the size of the cooling canals compared to the entire installation. The light colored area in the very upper right corner of the photo contains two nuclear reactors and all of their associated secondary equipment, two oil fired power stations and one large combined cycle plant with four gas turbines and a steam secondary. As can be seen, the cooling canals require far more room than all of the rest of the equipment combined.

The arrangement has been described as a large radiator. It also happens to be one of the most productive American crocodile breeding areas in the country.

Addition posted May 30, 2007: Reader Ian pointed out that you can explore the site yourself from Google Maps using the following link – http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=25.398003,-80.341644&spn=0.14251,0.204964&t=k&z=13&om=1 . Thank you Ian, it is an interesting trip to be able to zoom in and see just how small the reactor building are in comparison to the rest of the equipment on site – like the fuel oil storage tanks for the fossil plant.

Rod Adams
Rod Adams

Rod Adams is Managing Partner of Nucleation Capital, a venture fund that invests in advanced nuclear, which provides affordable access to this clean energy sector to pronuclear and impact investors. Rod, a former submarine Engineer Officer and founder of Adams Atomic Engines, Inc., which was one of the earliest advanced nuclear ventures, is an atomic energy expert with small nuclear plant operating and design experience. He has engaged in technical, strategic, political, historic and financial analysis of the nuclear industry, its technology, regulation, and policies for several decades through Atomic Insights, both as its primary blogger and as host of The Atomic Show Podcast. Please click here to subscribe to the Atomic Show RSS feed. To join Rod's pronuclear network and receive his occasional newsletter, click here.

Similar Posts

  • Quantifying Risks of Tritium in Response to an Op-Ed Piece from the "Radioactive Watchdog" at "Beyond Nuclear"

    ByRod Adams

    There is an op-ed piece in the New Hampshire Sentinel-Source titled READER OPINION: Radiation must be taken seriously written by Kevin Kamps. The op-ed is focused on trying to elevate concerns about tritium found in the groundwater at Vermont Yankee. He is responding to an article that the paper had previously published titled Scientists: Tritium…

  • Heating Oil Price Chart

    ByRod Adams

    As part of my preparations for a final post of 2010, I reviewed my 2010 Google Analytics results. For reasons that I cannot quite understand, a short post I published more than five years ago showed up as third on the hit list. Perhaps I just discovered a catchy title. Here is a updated version…

  • "Power to Save the World" reviewed by Spencer Reiss for the Wall St. Journal

    ByRod Adams

    Spencer Reiss, who often writes about energy for Wired Magazine, published a review of Gwyneth Cravens’s Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy in the November 20, 2007 edition of the Wall Street Journal. The value of this review has already been demonstrated to me – I have received several emails mentioning…

  • For Reliable Information About Radiation Go to RadiationAnswers.org

    ByRod Adams

    One of the important action items from yesterday’s American Nuclear Society plenary sessions was provided by NRC Commissioner Dale Klein. During his talk, he pointed out the need for an increased focus on education and information sharing. He talked about various ways of getting information to the new workers who will be needed to make…

  • What is Going On With USEC, the DOE, and the American Centrifuge?

    ByRod Adams

    The continuing saga of the USEC project to build a new enrichment facility at the Piketon, Ohio facility using a recently developed and tested technology called the American Centrifuge is getting more intriguing each day. On July 28, 2009, publications specializing in stock market reporting contained blurbs explaining the activity in USEC stock on July…

  • Cape Town, SA demands less emissions while taking action against PBMR

    ByRod Adams

    Cognitive dissonance about climate change continues to amaze me. According to an article published on IOL.co.sa titled Cape must reduce power use by 2010 Cape Town, South Africa has passed a municipal ordinance demanding that businesses reduce their energy consumption by 10% by the year 2010 – that is just 3 years away. Though the…