Sea water intakes and outfalls on the cooling system of Akkuyu nuclear power plant
Using a physical model to check the water supply to the cooling water basins and the dimensional design of the sea outfall forebay
Context
Akkuyu nuclear power plant (Turkey) - Client: Yuksel Proje
Power plant sea water intakes - Scale: 1:33.3
Sea outfall forebay - Scale: 1:30
The four reactors at the future Akkuyu nuclear power plant, on the south coast of Turkey, will be supplied with water by four pumping stations abstracting seawater from coastal ponds. These ponds are in turn supplied by a series of water intakes passing through the protective breakwaters.
Artelia was commissioned by Yuksel Proje to produce the conceptual and dimensional designs for all of the maritime hydraulic structures for the Akkuyu project, including the sea water intakes and outfall.
Purposes of the physical models
The water intake structures had to meet a number of hydraulic design criteria such as intake velocity, absence of vortices, limitation of head losses, and energy dissipation at the outfall.
The outfall structure, composed of a forebay followed by 12 pressurised culverts discharging the cooling water into the sea, also had to function smoothly without excessive turbulence and with no risk of vortices developing or air being entrained in the culverts.
The physical modelling studies were performed at the end of the design phase, to ensure that the design criteria were met and thus guarantee that these structures will function efficiently from the hydraulic standpoint, whatever the conditions (tide, flow rate, screens blocked by waste, etc.).
