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On the East Coast - especially in New England, the discharge area is where the fishermen look for the best fishing.

But even in Florida - the discharge waters are considered a benefit!

Consider that Florida Power & Light, when it built the Turkey Point Station (with 2 nuclear plants) - was forced to put in a very long “cooling canal” to allow the water to cool some before being discharged to the ocean. It added a lot to the cost of the plant that the environmentalist tried to keep from being built.

Years later, the plant operated safely, providing reliable power. But when it needed to shut down BOTH nuclear plants during the winter for regular refueling, the environmentalists went to court to keep the plants from being shutdown. Seems that the cooling canals were a great “sanctuary” for the manatee (sea cow). Ultimately, the power company was forced to keep 1 plant operating til late spring, which meant operating the plant at 50% power to extend the time til the plant would have to be shut down.

Of course, the best economics require the plant to operate at 100% power til fuel exhaustion, then do the refueling and bring the plant back up to 100% power for 12 to 18 months before the next refueling.

However, FPL (and the users) were forced to pay more by requiring inefficient plant operations, to provide a better environment for a marine animal .....while those same environmentalists had tried to keep the plant from even being built. (This is similar to the opposition to the Alaska Pipeline - it was going to hurt the caribou, when in fact, by providing some man-made shelter ...the population of the caribou has doubled or tripled in areas near the pipeline.)

Mike