Nuclear power plants need a source of cooling. Water is the usual source of cooling, and lots of it, making a desert location unrealistic.
Well they are built to cool the HUGE amounts of heat generated by the Uranium fuel that usually exceeds 700 Degree Celcius. A nuclear powerplant is usually built near the ocean and the water is turned to stean that turns a turbine which generates energy.
For the cooling system of the power plant
To gain a constant source of water.
At the moment, the largest operating nuclear generation station is Bruce Power Nuclear Generating Station in Ontario, Canada. It has 6 units online out of 8 and is producing 4,640 MW, two more untis are being restarted and when they come back online in 2010 the capacity for Bruce Power will be 7,276 MW. The largest nuclear reactor station ever constructed is the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, but it was shut down in 2007 due to earthquake damage.
Nuclear power plants need a source of cooling. Water is the usual source of cooling, and lots of it, making a desert location unrealistic.
Large towers are built to provide water to keep equipment cool.
A nuclear power plant needs a large heatsink, i.e. cooling water. There is very little cooling water in the middle of a desert. That is why nuclear power plants are generally built on the edge of oceans or lakes, or on large rivers.
Well they are built to cool the HUGE amounts of heat generated by the Uranium fuel that usually exceeds 700 Degree Celcius. A nuclear powerplant is usually built near the ocean and the water is turned to stean that turns a turbine which generates energy.
Basically, nuclear power plants use the heat from a nuclear fission reaction to boil water The steaming water then turns a turbine that generates electricity.
Because Neuclear Power Plants need water to cool down the reactors and thus the sea is a great place to get cold water from! :)
Nuclear power plants contribute to thermal pollution by releasing heated water back into the environment after being used to cool their systems. This heated water can raise the temperature of the receiving water body, which can disrupt aquatic ecosystems and harm aquatic life.
Nuclear power plants require huge amounts of water for cooling, a resource not available in large quantities in most deserts. However, your question is not completely true as there are nuclear power plants in the desert. Palo Verde in Arizona is an example.
Terrain hardly comes into it. However nuclear plants should not be built in earthquake zones, and they need adequate cooling water (like any power plant does)
A matter of primary importance is the fact that nuclear power plants need to be built to withstand the heaviest earthquakes likely to happen in the are in which they are sited. The west coast is home to the majority of earthquakes in the United States. Nuclear power plants also need large amounts of cooling water. Most nuclear power plants are inland, on fresh water, and the west coast does not have a large amount of inland water.
For the cooling system of the power plant
Power plants that burn fossil fuels and nuclear power plants are very similar in their manner of creating steam. The main difference between the two types of power plants are that fossil fuel plants emit more pollution.