Cooling water!
For the steam turbines to work, the condenser needs to cooled.
Having a nice cool ocean nearby cuts costs.
dear dumb,
I am aware of the statement made comical by Ed Asner:
“You can never put too much water in a reactor.”
I can see the public screams of the pipelines further back off the shore, but for a nation that made a separate reverent word for ‘tidal wave’, should have known better.