Implications of Climate Change on the Heat Budget of Lentic Systems Used for Power Station Cooling: Case Study Clinton Lake, Illinois

We use a numerical model to analyze the impact of climate changein particular higher air temperatureson a nuclear power station that recirculates the water from a reservoir for cooling. The model solves the hydrodynamics, the transfer of heat in the reservoir, and the energy balance at the surface. We use the numerical model to (i) quantify the heat budget in the reservoir and determine how this budget is affected by the combined effect of the power station and climate change and (ii) quantify the impact of climate change on both the downstream thermal pollution and the power station capacity. We consider four different scenarios of climate change. Results of simulations show that climate change will reduce the ability to dissipate heat to the atmosphere and therefore the cooling capacity of the reservoir. We observed an increase of 25% in the thermal load downstream of the reservoir, and a reduction in the capacity of the power station of 18% during the summer months for the worst-case climate change scenario tested. These results suggest that climate change is an important threat for both the downstream thermal pollution and the generation of electricity by power stations that use lentic systems for cooling.

本研究采用数值模型，分析气候变化——尤其是气温升高——对采用水库水循环冷却的核电站的影响。该模型可求解水库内的流体动力学过程、水体热传递过程以及水面能量平衡。本研究通过该数值模型完成两项核心任务：(i) 量化水库热收支，并明确核电站与气候变化的共同作用如何影响该热收支；(ii) 量化气候变化对下游热污染及核电站发电容量的影响。本次研究共设置四种不同的气候变化情景。模拟结果表明，气候变化会降低水体向大气的散热能力，进而削弱水库的冷却效能。在本次测试的最劣气候变化情景下，夏季水库下游热负荷增幅达25%，核电站发电容量缩减18%。上述结果显示，气候变化对下游热污染以及采用静水环境进行冷却的核电站的电力生产均构成重大威胁。