2014 EPA rules effectively prohibit once through cooling for new power plants in the United States. These rules are based on reducing larval mortality; but with little recognition that natural larval mortality is close to 1.0. In most species, overall larval survivability to adulthood is based on the population that the environment can support. In the jargon, these are called density dependent populations. In short, almost all larvae killed by a power plant will be replaced in the natural course of things.
People like the NRDC say that once-through kills millions of fish per plant per year? Is this true? What trade-off should we accept between fish deaths and efficiency?
This is so true. Thank you for writing this.
I wrote an article about this several years ago. Fiish eat fish eggs. That is the main cause of fish egg mortality. It's not about cooling towers.
The whole cooling tower thing is just a way to atack nuclear plants. (Please also look at the inset about Turkey Point.) https://www.neimagazine.com/features/featurekeeping-cool-under-pressure-4888411/
People like the NRDC say that once-through kills millions of fish per plant per year? Is this true? What trade-off should we accept between fish deaths and efficiency?