Originally posted by Racer X 69 The three towers to the left look like nuclear power plant cooling towers. Is the power plant a combination coal/nuclear plant?
The wasp wasted towers are parabolic cooling towers for the water used to generate the steam which powers the giant turbines in the plant. Coal, oil,
natural gas and nuclear power plants which use steam turbines to turn the generators must cool the water before piping it back through to be reheated. The towers are open around the base with about 40-60 feet (height) worth of cedar or composite slats which which the hot water flows over to allow it to cool. The parabolic shape of the towers uses the Venturi effect to draw cool air through the open areas at the bottom over the falling superheated water and exhausting the steam vapor produced out the top. SO-what you see is just plain old steam.
The steam coming from the second tallest chimney is due to the type of emissions "scrubber" used on that unit. A wet limestone slurry is sprayed trough the super hot coal exhaust. The reaction bonds the sulphur and CO2 along with some NOX to the limestone effectively turning it into a gypsum like substance which is then buried along with the pulverized "fly ash" created by burning coal. The two identical height chimneys also have limestone based emissions scrubbers, however they use a slightly less effect dry limestone reaction method.