[pengaru]

> isn't the point of steam to carry heat _away_ from the plant?

The point of steam is to turn a generator, these plants are basically steam engines using heat to produce steam for driving a turbine.

Edit: I think I'm wrong in that the steam loop for driving the turbines is isolated from the loop including the cooling towers which is strictly for cooling the closed generation circuit via heat exchangers to condense the steam... you're right.