Fun fact when it comes to nuclear power plants the cooling towers arent releasing nuclear waste or heavy chemicals. Its litterally just steam from water. All nuclear plants do is use radioactive material to heat up a contained pool of water kept at a pressure that prevents it from boiling awayand which is piped through another container of water that is at a lower pressure so it boils before the ‘nuclear’ water. That steam from the ‘non-nuclear’ water is then feed through a steam turbine to produce electricity before being sent through a condenser to be reused.
Fun fact when it comes to nuclear power plants the cooling towers arent releasing nuclear waste or heavy chemicals. Its litterally just steam from water. All nuclear plants do is use radioactive material to heat up a contained pool of water kept at a pressure that prevents it from boiling awayand which is piped through another container of water that is at a lower pressure so it boils before the ‘nuclear’ water. That steam from the ‘non-nuclear’ water is then feed through a steam turbine to produce electricity before being sent through a condenser to be reused.
You’re describing a BWR
https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/power/bwrs.html
There’s also PWR’s
https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/power/pwrs.html
Just slight difference
But there are also salt cooling and other reactors.