Wind Tunnel Experimental Study on Effect of Nuclear Power Plant Cooling Tower on Radioactive Plume Dispersion

A wind tunnel experiment for the effect of the cooling tower in an inland nuclear power plant on flow and dispersion of radioactive plume was introduced in paper. The model scale is 1:1500. Measurements of mean flow, turbulence characteristics and wake structure with different orientations of cooling tower and other buildings were made by using an X-array hot wire probe. The effects of the cooling tower and drift on dispersion of radioactive substances from the stack were investigated through tracer experiments. The results show that dispersion in near field is significantly enhanced due to the cooling towers and other tall buildings and the determinate effect of the drift released from the cooling towers on dispersion of pollutants from the stack was found. In general, the effects of cooling tower and its drift on the radioactive plume dispersion obviously depends on the height of release as well as the relative position of stack with cooling towers, especially significant for the case of the cooling tower parallel to stack along wind direction. Moreover, the wind tunnel experiment is a very important and effective tool to investigate micro-scale turbulent dispersion.