system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why are nuclear reactors shown with steam coming out the big cooling towers?

So, as far as I understand, nuclear reactors work by heating water through uranium reactions, which creates steam that powers turbines to generate electricity. If there is steam left that could still be moving turbines, why is it released into the air instead of used?

EDIT: Oh man, meant to write "with steam coming out **of** the big cooling towers".
gpt
The clouds  you see coming out of the cooling towers are caused by warm, moist air from the towers cooling and the water vapor in it cooling and condensing. You see this above nuclear, and coal, and gas stations because in all cases there is heat remaining in the steam coming out of the turbines (call that working steam) that cannot be turned into electrical energy. But, that steam must be cooled and condensed back into water before it recirculates back to the boiler. The waste heat extracted to do that is dumped into cooling water, and then into the atmosphere.

One arrangement is that inside the power plant are condensers which cool the working steam using cold water (from a river, say). That water leaves the condenser hot, and is pumped to the cooling towers where it is sprayed into the air inside the tower, or maybe poured over some sort of loose packing with air flowing through. The hottest component of the cooling water evaporates, leaving cooler water and transferring the waste heat to the atmosphere. The hot noise air rises by convection inside the tower and then hits the colder air outside.