BTW, while wondering about the hyperboloid shape of cooling towers

[eub]

(and not running across any strong explanation for why that shape) I happened on the Adziogol lighthouse. "is a graceful vertical lattice hyperboloid structure of steel bars, 70 meters high."



(Now if what you have available is straight steel bar stock, then a ruled surface form must be a great temptation, but surely that's not what motivates nuclear cooling tower builders?)

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[eub.livejournal.com]

In this setup the reactor is in a containment vessel a few hundred meters away; I guess the water to be cooled is run over in pipes. (I don't know where the electrical-generator part of things is.)