Preliminary results of a study on hydrodynamics of Danube - Black Sea canal using tritiated waste water from NPP Cernavoda

In this study we plan to use tritiated liquid effluents from a CANDU type nuclear power plant as a tracer, to study hydrodynamics on Danube - Black Sea Canal, thus extending the observation area along this important man-made canal. This canal is ideal for this kind of study, because waste water evacuations are occasionally due to technical operations of a nuclear power plant. Tritiated water can be used to simulate the transport and dispersion of solutes in Danube - Black Sea canal because they have the same physical characteristics as water. Measured tracer-response curves produced from injection of a known quantity of soluble tracer provide an efficient method of obtaining necessary data. This paper presents the mixing length calculation for particular conditions (lateral branch of the canal, and lateral injection of waste water from nuclear power plant). A study of published experimental formulas was used to determine proper mixing length and the initial location of the experiment. Another result used in the further experiment concerns the tritium level along the Danube - Black Sea canal. We measured tritium activity concentration in water sampled along the canal between July-October 2002. The paper also presents future attempts to obtain unit-peak-attenuation (UPA) curve as related to different mixing times. (authors)