Selection of the most suitable cooling technology for the JEK2 project

The existing nuclear power plant in Krsko uses once through cooling with combination of cooling cells if needed. Since the cooling capacity of the Sava River is already fully utilized, JEK2 cooling will depend on cooling towers. The paper presents the basics of cooling nuclear power plants with cooling towers, the presentation of various technologies on the market and development of computational models for evaluating mechanical and natural draft cooling towers. Dry, wet, and hybrid cooling technologies are presented. Most nuclear facilities today are cooled by once through or wet cooling. Due to the stringent environmental requirements for once through cooling, more and more newly built power plants are cooled by wet cooling towers. From a multitude choice of cooling technologies, three alternatives were selected that would be most suitable for cooling the JEK2 condenser: a natural draft counterflow cooling tower, an induced mechanical draft counterflow tower and a hybrid tower with wet and dry cooling. Each of these has its advantages and disadvantages. Based on the input data for JEK2 project, empirical models developed in MS Excel were used to evaluate cooling towers for the main cooling water system (CW) and the essential water supply system (SW). The models link the dependence of JEK2 power and the required dimensions of cooling towers. The paper also compared the operating costs (excluding maintenance costs) for cooling JEK2 with mechanical cells or a natural draft tower.