Study of the cold sources of Paluel, Gravelines, Port-la-Nouvelle, and Dampierre power plants

For the same heat release 1kWth nuclear requires an amount of cooling water 60% higher than for a conventional kWth, in the same time the power installed on a site grows from 2400MWe (Porcheville plant) up to 3700MWe or 5400MWe such as at Dampierre or Paluel. This evolution increases the problems posed by the design and construction of the cooling circuit works in the same time as it seems to be an incentive to seaside plants or inland plants with cooling systems. Besides, a new cooling function of the reactor auxiliaries especially involving the nuclear safety with its specified requirements, is added to the conventional cooling function of the condenser. For the first seaside type of plant, another series of differences is seen: Paluel is a cliff site taking from and rejecting the water in the high seas, when Port-la-Nouvelle is on a plane untidal sandy coast, and Gravelines on a tidal seaport site. As for the second type of plant, Dampierre uses a closed circuit for the condenser cooling and an open circuit for the reactor auxiliary cooling systems