Cost comparison of dry-type and conventional cooling systems for representative nuclear generating plans

Results are presented of studies comparing the use of dry-type cooling towers with conventional cooling methods for representative pressurized-water-reactor nuclear power plants. The studies were based on the hypothetical use of dry-type cooling towers for three nuclear power plants now under construction which were designed and are being built to use conventional cooling methods. One of the plants is located in the northeastern United States, one in the Southeast and one in the West. The report also presents the results of comparisons based on a hypothetical plant at a typical eastern United States site. The three electric utilities which participated in these studies have furnished actual construction cost information for the conventional cooling systems being constructed, and the authors have made construction estimates for economically optimum dry cooling systems which might have been built in place of the conventional cooling systems being constructed. The report compares the physical and operating characteristics of dry-type and conventional cooling systems as well as the relative economics of the different cooling methods. The effect of dry cooling on the bus-bar cost of power has been computed for the three selected plants and for the typical eastern plant