Skip to main content

Alert

Due to a lapse in appropriations, the NRC has ceased normal operations. However, excepted and exempted activities necessary to maintain critical health and safety functions—as well as essential progress on designated critical activities, including those specified in Executive Order 14300—will continue, consistent with the OMB-Approved NRC Lapse Plan.

Condenser

A large heat exchanger designed to cool exhaust steam from a turbine below the boiling point so that it can be returned to the heat source as water. In a pressurized-water reactor, the water is returned to the steam generator. In a boiling-water reactor, it returns to the reactor core. The heat removed from the steam by the condenser is transferred to a circulating water system and is exhausted to the environment, either through a cooling tower or directly into a body of water.

Page Last Reviewed/Updated Tuesday, March 09, 2021

Page Last Reviewed/Updated Tuesday, March 09, 2021