Effect of Atmospheric Forcing on Plume Dispersion and Study of Nuclear Effluent Trajectories for the Kalpakkam Coast, India
Publication: Journal of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste
Volume 19, Issue 3
Abstract
The air–sea interaction process and its implication at the outfall location of a nuclear power plant have been studied using the Princeton ocean model (POM) under varied environmental forcing parameters (momentum and heat fluxes). In the first set of numerical experiments, constant momentum flux is used with reversing wind speeds of 2 and respectively. It is observed that with an increase in wind speed, the plume exhibited a narrow directional spread unlike that for low winds. Incorporation of constant heat flux and momentum flux showed marginal difference in the computed sea surface temperature (SST) at the outfall location. In the second set of experiments, variable momentum and heat fluxes were introduced that led to significant variations in SST, salinity, and circulation patterns. A net variation of approximately 2–3°C in SST has been recorded at the outfall location. Finally, the POM and the particle-trajectory tracking model (PTTM) have been integrated to trace the nuclear effluents. The resultant particle trajectories indicate that they follow the general ocean circulation pattern. It is inferred from the present study, that to obtain realistic estimates of plume dispersion characteristics, associated SST and nuclear effluent trajectories, incorporation of variable heat, and momentum flux are essential prerequisites in ocean modeling studies.
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Acknowledgments
The authors greatly acknowledge Dr. R. Venkatesan for his unending support to carry out this work, and thank him for providing meteorological tower data of the Kalpakkam region. This study was financially supported by the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The authors express their sincere gratitude to MODIS SST, OSCAR Surface Current data, and the Scatterometer Climatology of Ocean Winds (SCOW) providers. The authors express their sincere thanks to Dr. Prasad Kumar Bhaskaran for sharing his thoughts and suggestions to carry out the work. They would also like to express their sincere gratitude to Dr. Irene Preeti Divien Gangai for suggesting modifications to the manuscript.
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Published In
Journal of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste
Volume 19 • Issue 3 • July 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 15, 2013
Accepted: Jul 16, 2014
Published online: Sep 2, 2014
Discussion open until: Feb 2, 2015
Published in print: Jul 1, 2015
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