Abstract:
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The electrical production of a Nuclear Power Plant depends on the performance
of the Circulating Water System, which works removes the residual heat of the plant
according to regulations. Owing to the old age of Ascó's NPP Cooling Towers,
which are a part of the Circulating Water System, the performance of this system
has been reduced. Consequently, the electrical production of the facility has been
decreased and the number of events, which triggers the turbine to trip, have been
augmented. The aim of this project is to study the viability of a set of modi cation
and improvement proposals of the Cooling Towers.
A survey of the current performance of the towers has been carried out. The
results of this previous study shows that: On the one hand, the cooling capability of
the Natural Draft Tower has decreased around 4 oC from their construction. This
deterioration has been intensi ed at a rate of 1 oC/year during the last three years.
On the other hand, the performance of the Mechanical Draft Towers has dropped
around 2 oC.
Thermodynamic models capable to simulate the performance of the Circulating
Water System, and the current and proposed Cooling Tower have been developed
from the existing and provided data. Because of the e ciency of these systems
depends on the Ebro's river and local atmospheric conditions, an annual statistics
of these parameters is developed. These quantities have been introduced in the
developed model, so an annual estimation of the energetic uprate has been done.
Finally, the economical feasibility from the di erent proposals has been studied.
From the obtained results, two solutions have been found: One of them is repairing
both types of towers, and the second one consists of modifying the Natural
Draft Tower and repairing the Mechanical Draft Towers. |