conference summary

cooling tower environment—1974

Steven R. Hanna Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Laboratory

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830

The symposium "Cooling Tower Environment—1974," sponsored by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the State of Maryland, was held 4-6 March 1974 at the University of Maryland. The purpose of the symposium was to bring together the persons currently doing re-search on cooling towers in order to establish the state of the art of our knowledge. T h e 30 invited papers and the accompanying discussion by the 150 attendees at the symposium will be published about November 1974 by the AEC Technical Information Center. T h e titles and authors of the papers are listed below:

Engineering and Technology Session

The role of environmental, economic, and social con-siderations in selecting a cooling system for a steam electric generating plant. A. Roffman (Westinghouse).

Optimum design of dry-wet combination cooling towers for power plants. V. C. Patel, T . E. Croley, II, and M. S. Cheng (University of Iowa).

Plume recirculation and interference in mechanical draft cooling toivers. J. F. Kennedy (University of Iowa) and H. Fordyce (The Marley Company).

Drift management in the Chalk Point cooling tower. J. D. Holmberg (The Marley Company).

The Chalk Point cooling tower project. J . Pell (State of Maryland).

Plume Rise Session

Some observations on cooling tower plume behavior at the Paradise steam plant. P. R. Slawson (University of Waterloo), J. H. Coleman and J. W. Frey (Tennessee Valley Authority).

Plume rise from multiple sources. G. Briggs (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).

A three dimensional steady-state simulation of a moist buoyant plume. J. Ta f t (Systems, Science, and Software).

Recent C.E.G.B. research on environmental effects of wet cooling towers. D. J. Moore (Central Electricity Re-search Laboratory, Leatherhead).

Meteorological consequences of thermal discharges from nuclear power plants—research needs. J. Carson (Ar-gonne National Laboratories).

Visible Plume and Fog Frequency Session

Meteorological influences of atmospheric cooling systems as projected in Switzerland. A. Junod (Swiss Meteorologi-

cal Institute), R. J. Hopkirk (Electro-Watt), D. Schneiter (Swiss Meteorological Institute), and D. Haschke (Swiss Federal Institute for Reactor Research).

Experience with combined wind tunnel/plume model analysis of cooling tower environmental impact. P. B0gh (Motor Columbus, Baden, Switzerland).

Meteorological effects of the mechanical draft cooling towers of the Oak Ridge gaseous diffusion plant. S. R. Hanna (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-tion, Oak Ridge).

Mechanical draft cooling tower visible plume behavior: Measurements, models, predictions. J . H. Meyer, T . W. Eagles, L. C. Kohlenstein, J . A. Kagan, and W. D. Stan-bro (The Johns Hopkins University).

Ecological Effects Session

Airborne sea salt-techniques for experimentation and its effects on vegetation. B. Moser (Rutgers University).

Sodium and chloride concentrations in native vegetation near Chalk Point, Maryland. C. R. Curtis, H. G. Gauch, R. Sik (University of Maryland).

Effects of salt sprays on the yield and nutrient balance of corn (Zea mays, L.) and Soybeans (Clycine max., L.). C. L. Mulchi and J . A. Armbruster (University of Mary-land).

Some terrestrial environmental considerations relative to cooling tower systems for tower generating facilities. P. Edmonds, R. Maxwell, and H. Roffman (Westinghouse).

Environmental effects of chromium and zinc in cooling water drift. F. G. Taylor, Jr., L. K. Mann, R. C. Dahl-man, and F. L. Miller (Oak Ridge National Laboratory).

Thresholds for injury to plants from salt drift from cool-ing towers. P. Freudenthal (Consolidated Edison).

Drift Deposition Session

Measurement and interpretation of drift particle data. F. Shofner, T . Carlson, and R. Webb (Environmental Systems Corporation).

Prediction and measurement of airborne particulate con-centrations from cooling device sources and in the ambient atmosphere. G. Schrecker, K. Wilber, F. Shof-ner, and C. Thomas (Environmental Systems Corpora-tion).

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Vol . 55, No. 6,, June 1974

An analytical search for the stochastic-dominating process in the drift deposition problem. W. G. N. Slinn (Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory).

A test program on environment effects of salt water mechanical cooling devices. C. D. Henderson and S. H. Dowdell (Florida Power and Light Company).

The Forked River program—a case study in salt water cooling. J. Devine (General Public Utilities Service Corp.).

Measurements of drift from a mechanical draft cooling tower. A. Alkezweeny, D. Glover, R. Lee, J. Sloot, and M. Wolf (Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory).

Influence of the choice of the plume diffusion formula on the salt deposition rate calculation. J. A. Pena and C. L. Hosier (Pennsylvania State University).

Drift deposition rates from wet cooling systems. A. Roff-man and R. E. Grimble (Westinghouse).

A mathematical transport model for salt distribution from a salt water-natural draft cooling tower. S. M. Laskowski (Pickard, Lowe, and Associates, Washington).

A drift deposition model for natural draft cooling towers. G. W. Israel and T. I. Overcamp (University of Mary-land).

Some of the major points brought up in the papers and the discussion are:

1) Cooling tower manufacturers look forward to guaranteeing drift rates as low as 0.001% (ratio of flux of circulating water splashed out of the top of the tower to the total flux of circulating water in the tower) (Holmberg, Sliofner et al.).

2) Dry-wet combination cooling towers are becoming technically and economically feasible (Patel et al).

3) Current procedures for selecting cooling systems do not adequately account for environmental, economic, and social considerations. A method for quantitatively evaluating all of these effects is proposed by Roffman.

4) Wind tunnel studies suggest that recirculation rates of up to 5% occur with blocky mechanical draft towers but that this rate is considerably reduced if the wind direction is within 5% of the tower axis (Kennedy et al). At hyperbolic towers, recirculation is insignificant, but slight downwash occurs which should be taken into account in plume rise models (B0gh; Junod et al).

5) TVA measurements of cooling tower plumes and stack plumes are used to develop models of visible plume

length and plume rise from multiple sources (Slawson et al.) Briggs).

6) In Switzerland, shadowing due to the cooling tower and its plume may be of importance (Junod et al). The analysis, however, shows an insignificant reduction in sunshine.

7) A summary of British cooling tower experience by Moore points out that fogging and drift deposition due to cooling tower emissions are not major problems in that area.

8) Large experimental programs on cooling tower drift deposition are planned at Chalk Point, Md., and Turkey Point, Fla. (Pell, Henderson, et al.).

9) Current drift deposition measurements are not adequate for validating models (Pena and Hosier, Car-son). Measurements at the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant are useful, but the mechanical draft cooling towers (Hanna, Alkezweeny, et al) there are out of date and not representative of the current technology.

10) Drift deposition models are accurate only within an order of magnitude (Pena and Hosier; Roffman et al; Israel et al). Major problems include determining the point at which a drift droplet breaks away from the plume, and estimating the turbulent dispersion of a drop settling at a speed of about 1 m/s (Slinn).

11) Several studies of the effects of natural or labora-tory salt spray on vegetation are underway (Moser; Curtis et al; Mulchi et al; Edmonds et al; Freudenthal), but so far there have been no such field studies at the site of an operating salt water cooling tower. Such data are greatly needed (Carson). The study by Taylor et al of the effects of chromium drift on vegetation shows that high chromium concentrations are evident in plants within 500 m of mechanical draft towers, but that levels approach background at greater distances.

12) The general consensus of the people at the sym-posium was that models had been carried as far as pos-sible in the absence of detailed verification. What is needed now is validation data.

Symposium chairmen were S. R. Hanna of the Atmo-spheric Turbulence and Diffusion Laboratory, NOAA, P.O. Box E, Oak Ridge, Tenn. 37830, and J. Pell of the Bureau of Air Quality Control, 610 N. Howard Street, Baltimore, Md. 21201. Orders for copies of the proceed-ings volume available as CONF 740302 (cost $13.60), to be published late in 1974, should be sent to the National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, Va. 22151.

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