Impact of Nuclear Power Plants of the Pwr-Type on River Water Quality (Case-Report of the River Meuse)
Five years' experience with data of the TAILFER plant located 48 km downstream of the nuclear power site of GHOOZ is reported so as to provide guidelines for the examination of future nuclear cases. The factors considered are: the reduction in water flow and thermal impacts, the discharge of nuclear active effluents and the physico-chemical impact of enrichment in salts and suspended matter. Primary importance must be given to the proportion of the discharges in terms of added (instantaneous) volume activities. In the case of inland rivers the most active effluents, including the particular isotope tritium, are contained in a reduced volume (1400 m3/l000 MWe), and are best evacuated to other sites. Guidelines to check the river water quality are based on the measurement of 3H, total γ, and especifically, Go60, Cs13737, Mn54, Co58, and Cs134. Flow measurement and river transfer modelling must be part of the study of the impact as illustrated by this case-report.