Recently, a wind tunnel experiment project undertaken by CIRP has successfully passed the expert review. This project investigates the dispersion effects of exhaust emissions from the first super-large natural draft cooling tower in China, representing the first domestic physical simulation verification on the entrainment effect of the draft cooling tower, which are instrumental in revealing the dispersion impact patterns.
In order to understand the impact of super-large natural draft cooling towers in nuclear power plants on the dispersion of the airborne radioactive nuclides emitted from chimneys, the project team of CIRP combined the engineering layout as well as the environmental and meteorological characteristics of the plant site, using similarity theory to ensure the geometric, kinematic, dynamic, and boundary condition similarities between the model and the prototype. In the experiment, representative weather conditions were selected to study the effects of thermal plumes from the cooling tower and the influence of cooling tower, as tall building, on the dispersion of airborne emissions at different release heights. This progress in wind tunnel simulation technologies revealed the migration pathways and patterns of specific radionuclides caused by the circumfluence of cooling tower. It provides technical support for the assessment of NPP site selection, design, and construction.
