Mixing and Heat Transfer of Cooling Water Discharges from the Monticello Nuclear Power Generating Plant into the Mississippi River

Abstract

Water temperature data obtained in the Mississippi River downstream from the Monticello Nuclear Power Generating Plant during 32 field surveys have been analyzed and reduced to a form which permits the prediction of certain thermal plume characteristics using readily available plant operational, hydrologic and meteorological input data. To achieve this goal, dimensionless parameters are derived by analysis and applied in order to reduce the field data to simple graphical form and in some cases to semi-empirical equations. All results indicate that lateral turbulent mixing is the main mechanism by which cooling water effluents from the Monticello plant are diluted over the first three miles downstream from the outlet. There is no significant horizontal stratification and not much heat transfer to the atmosphere within the river reach studied.