The Use of Global Oceanic Datasets to Support Design and Operation of Barakah Nuclear Power Plant

Abstract

The steadily growing demands in the energy and fresh water supply have an adverse effect on the Arabian Gulf ecosystem due to pollution of its water. In addition, recirculation and interference of various industrial users of the seawater may potentially reduce their efficiencies or even lead to downtimes if feed-water characteristics do not meet their design criteria. In particular, normal discharge of heated effluent and radionuclides such as tritium, and hypothetical accidental discharges of harmful radioactive materials from the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant to the Gulf waters will worsen the situation in relevance to the security of aquatic food and water supply. In this context, MORAD programme has been established by the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) in the United Arab Emirates to model the dispersion of radionuclides in the Gulf waters, to provide support for the decision-making process during nuclear emergencies. 11-year HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) dataset with spatial resolution of 0.07° × 0.07° has been utilized in this thesis to study the sea surface temperature (SST) trend around the Barakah site, and to develop particle-tracking model for the simulation of hypothetical radioactive effluent releases from Barakah NPP to the Gulf. The HYCOM dataset includes global daily data on current velocities, temperature, and salinity. Accidental pollutions by radionuclides are known to impact large areas over decades, thus making HYCOM a suitable dataset to study the dispersion of radionuclides in the Gulf and even the Sea of Oman due to accidental releases, either as direct into the sea or as in the form of the fallouts from the air onto the water surface. In addition, the Barakah NPP utilizes the seawater for cooling purposes, and therefore knowledge of the seawater temperature characteristics in Barakah is important to support design and operation of its cooling system, particularly taking into consideration the expected changes in the future. The availability of long-term data makes HYCOM suitable for this purpose too, especially due to the absence of long-term continuous measurements in Barakah. First, HYCOM temperature dataset was validated by comparing it against the 2-year in-situ measurements collected by the sensors installed at the buoys deployed in the Barakah site vicinity, namely, near Jabel al Danah, Silla, and Ras Ghumais, as a part of Abu Dhabi Ocean Observing System administered by Abu Dhabi Municipality. Beside the data was also compared against 11 years SST derived Group High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) with spatial resolution of 0.01° × 0.01°. Good agreement was observed between HYCOM SST and both in-situ measurements and the GHRSST data. Then SST trend was estimated by HYCOM to be equal to, in average, 0.088 C/year with a total increase of 0.96 C in 11 years. Finally, a particle tracking code was developed to track the trajectory of radionuclides in the Gulf for the period of 10 years. The particle tracking simulations were conducted for two scenarios: in the first of them the dispersion of continuous over 1 year release into the Gulf in Barakah followed by a non-release period was simulated; while in the second scenario, the instant (within 1 day) deposition from atmospheric plume onto the water surface was considered. These runs showed that the coastline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be the most affected area in the case of a postulated accidental release of radioactive material to the Gulf mainly due to the shallow bathometry and low residual currents velocities near the shoreline. The radionuclides discharge is expected to follow the average annual current direction, which is from Barakah toward the Strait of Hormuz, thus being consistent with the general counterclockwise circulation pattern in the Gulf.

Date of Award	Dec 2021
Original language	American English