68-07: Natural Draft Cooling Towers

To those whose experience with and exposure to cooling towers have been almost exclusively concerned with towers utilizing mechanical draft, those which operate solely by natural means must appear large and clumsy, and perhaps even primitive.
However, such is not the case - the modern natural draft cooling tower represents a sophisticated design incorporating the ultimate in two areas of technology - thermal design and structural design. Ever-increasing electrical generating plant size and service requirements demand a high degree of refinement of both technologies in an effort to keep the not-inconsiderable costs of such towers to a realistic minimum.