Computational fluid dynamics numerical simulation of the effect of cooling towers on the diffusion of airborne radionuclides

Abstract

During the normal operation of cooling towers in nuclear power plants, water vapor with a certain temperature is discharged through the outlet of the cooling tower, which mixes with the surrounding air. A portion of this vapor condenses and forms visible plumes. This paper uses Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation software to simulate six nuclear power units and their supporting cooling towers at a nuclear power plant site, and studies the impact of plumes emitted from the six cooling towers under different wind directions on the radioactive diffusion of the nuclear power plant discharge. The research results indicate that when the arrangement direction of the cooling towers is consistent with the wind direction，the influence of the cooling towers on the environmental flow field extends to a distance of approximately 1 500 m in the downwind direction. When the cooling towers are located in the downwind direction of the reactor unit, the emission from the cooling towers increases the pollution diffusion factor within a 1 000 m range of the chimney. As the environmental wind speed increases, the impact of the cooling tower emissions on the diffusion of pollutants from the chimney decreases.

Keywords

• cooling tower
• plume
• nuclear plant
• computational fluid dynamics