A nuclear power station doesn't use a lot of water if it is " sited near the a large river ". ?????
I think it's a matter of sematics.
A power plant that is using steam to drive turbines would have a closed loop circuit with little evaporation.
They would have another circuit that is used for cooling which might use cooling towers that would lose water through evaporation (maybe 5%) that would need to be replenished or a once pass through system that warms some water from a body of water with little evaporation.
So those power plants need to access a lot of water.
