To a researcher like Kripa Varanasi, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, a big nuclear power plant similar to the one that generates electricity near Cape Town, South Africa, is a fountain of water just waiting to be tapped.

The 1,800-megawatt Koeberg Station drinks in water from the nearby Atlantic Ocean and uses it as part of its thermal cooling cycle. Just as in other industrial settings, cooling towers are an inherent part of the power plant’s steam cycle.

As the reactor heats ultra-pure water to create steam to spin a turbine and generate electricity, a cloud forms and rises from the cooling towers, akin to the plume of “steam” that wafts from the brim of a hot cup of coffee.

 

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