Is the coolant water used for nuclear reactors drinkable after it's gone through a nuclear reactor?

Fair Haven

Also, how much water does a atomic reactor need for cooling will a daily basis?



Avilla

The water that actually travels through the reactor to transfer the heat from the fuel is reused in a continuous loop. This water is ultra-pure with some anti-corrosion and sometimes some reactivity control chemicals added definitely not drinkable. Tritium and Deuterium are also produced in the reactor core, so this water would have a significantly higher concentration of tritium than normally found in nature. The cooling water used to condense the steam used to turn the turbine is pretty much the same going out as coming in, just warmer. There is about 300,000 gallons per minute of cooling water being "used" at my plant while operating at full power, (about 600Mw) this is about 432 million gallons per day. Any thermal, steam cycle, based power plant would use about the same amount no matter the source of heat, fossil fuel, solar, nuclear or geothermal. Remember this water is only "borrowed" and is returned minutes after being taken. If you would drink it on the way in you could drink it on the way out. Just for information, if we discharged "city water" or "tap water" which people do drink, we could be fined because of it's being above our allowable limits.