On Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:32:11 +0100, tony sayer wrote:

Cannot that cooling water "heat" be usefully recovered?..

It could by piping it to the local community for space/water heating.
Large scale combined heat and power, used quite a bit in other
countries and should also be done in this country but you do need a
sizeable community, or a business that can use the heat, close to the
power station.

--
Cheers
Dave.