PNNL

Abstract

In mid 1974, The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission initiated the Dry Cooling Tower Program to provide the technology to support the increased use of dry cooling for central power stations. The purpose of the program was to provide solutions to existing problems of dry cooling and the development and demonstration of new dry cooling concepts. The program included input from utilities, architect engineers, dry cooling system vendors and others involved in technology development. This paper focuses on initial studies conducted at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to investigate dry and wet/dry cooling concepts to develop economic and performance models for cost optimization of total heat rejection systems using dry and wet/dry cooling to provide a compilation of studies and results.