Smokestack Pollution.

1. Jeff Foltz
   December 28th, 2006 at 3:37 am

   Those are cooling towers - what's coming out of them is STEAM.

2. Kevin Krinn
   December 28th, 2006 at 3:43 am

   Actually if that is a Nuclear Power plant, which it appears to be, those are just cooling towers. Then what you are seeing is steam and water vapors, not pollution. That's why they say nuclear power is clearer. It is for the air but it still produces pollution in the form of barrels of nuclear waste that has to be buried somewhere.

3. Kevin Krinn
   December 28th, 2006 at 3:43 am

   beat me to it...

4. Andy Minnis
   December 28th, 2006 at 7:08 am

   Beaten to it as well - it is just steam, but it is indicative of a very active power station that will be pumping out pollution in ways that can't be seen in this photo. Whichever way you intepret it, it's a stunning image!

5. yayo
   December 28th, 2006 at 8:19 am

   I work beside some of those towers ^^. Nearby there's a coal power plant and it produces a lot of smoke BUT, a nuclear plant won't produce polution at all. Keep quiet, it's only hot water.

   Here's a really nice image of one abandoned steam cooling tower... they've installed a museum in it

   http://www.andarines.com/asturias/barros/S00REG~1.jpg

6. Lasse
   December 29th, 2006 at 6:12 am

   Cooling towers and hot water can seriously alter the environment by changing the temperature thereby changing the life conditions for flora and fauna around the site. And it produces nuclear waste too.

7. NeonCat
   December 29th, 2006 at 9:50 am

   I hate to be the bearer of bad news but serious electrical energy production has pollution as a consequence. Yes, yes, wind, tidal, geothermal and solar have minimum impact (so far) but they are dwarfed in terms of output by fossil fuel, nuclear and hydroelectric production. Hydro has problems with silting, environmental impact and methane, I believe, while fossil fuel plants dump greenhouse gases (including CO2 with radioactive Carbon 14 in it) into the atmosphere. Personally, I wouldn't be bothered a bit if a well designed and well built nuclear plant was in my back yard.

   My real question, in looking at the photo, is to wonder if there isn't a way to get energy out of all that heat being dumped into the atmosphere, or pipe the steam to a town to use for heating.

8. Tim
   December 29th, 2006 at 1:47 pm

   ROFLMAO!!

   All this fuss over water vapor. It is steam on a foggy morning. NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS.

   http://www.junkscience.com

9. yayo
   December 29th, 2006 at 3:27 pm

   Yup in a coal plant nearby they use steam to move their turbines and the resulting hot water also irrigates greenhouses.

10. bildo baggins
    December 30th, 2006 at 12:39 am

    I have operated nuclear power plants for years. Nothing is cleaner and more efficient, and STEAM is not pollution in any way at all. I am very tired of environmentalists opposing these plants when every efficient alternative is MUCH more invasive and destructive.

11. mattymatt
    December 30th, 2006 at 2:31 am

    By itself, the steam probably isn't causing much climate change. But I wonder if the plant beneath it produces other, more harmful byproducts.

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