It’s floating on large Siberian rivers ... River water flows under the barge, gets sucked up into the coolers under the turbines, and goes back to the river.
No cooling tower needed. 6-10 foot diameter pipes. (2-3 meter - it’s a Russki design) but no cooling towers. They are only needed for enviro restrictions here in the US where the hot water is forbidden to go back in the river.
Simple. Easy. Cheap. Been done that way on the (up to) 500 Meg reactors for aircraft carriers for 50 years.
So, why does the US restrict discharge temperature? I realize the design is much simpler if you can just dump 120 degree F water back into the river. From an engineering point of view, it is no-brainer. But are there actual environmental impacts that are worth avoiding?
Of course, you are rejecting heat to either the river or the atmosphere, so which has the greater impact?