EVALUATION OF SOME ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF CONVENTIONAL STEAM POWER PLANT BY USING NUCLEAR AND OTHER ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES

Abstract

There are many sources of electricity in Egypt which varied from mazout, natural gas, hydropower and wind energy. Abou-Qir steam power plant, which locates at east of Alexandria, is one of the biggest thermal power stations in Egypt. It lies at El -Tarh, at Abou-Qir bay 3 Km far from El-Tabia pumping station and 20m off shore. Abu-Qir power plant produces = 925 Mw/h. It consists of five steam turbine units and a single gas turbine unit as follows:- Units 1,2,3,4 produce I 50 Mw each, Unit 5 produces 300 Mw and Gas turbine produces 25 Mw. The gas turbine is used mainly for emergency cases. The study focused more on some environmental impacts resulted from steam units because they have a cooling water system, which is not found in gas turbines. The S!udy aimed to use neutron activation technique as a nuclear analysis method in detern1ination of the environmental impacts of Abou-Qir steam power plant, besides the other conventional techniques. • A) Abou- Qir power plant cooling water systems results: 1- The mean average of the temperature of the collected outlet cooling system was 34.66°C, while the temperature of the receiving stream had an average value of 25.91°C. The compliance of temperature with the law was due to the use of once through cooling type and the length of collected hot channel (approximately one kilometer), which increases the heat transfer from water to air and consequently decrease the probabilities of thermal pollution. 2- Both phosphate and ammonia values were above the allowable limits of the law. The average phosphate and ammonia values of outlet collected channel were 4.8 ar..-l. 5.025 mg/1 respectively and for receiving bay were 5.05 and 5.32 mg/1. These values show some increase above the Egyptian Environmental Law4/1994. It was due to the use of polyphosphate as a buffer additive to cooling water inlet, so it may discharge with outlet. That may lead to formation of algae bloom, the algae begin to die, and organic material accumulates on the bottom of the bay which may result decrease of oxygen in water that leads finally to death of fish. 3- The mean values of total petroleum hydrocarbons of outlet collected channel and receiving bay were 8.12 and 7.6 mg/ 1. The values are highly exceeding the limits of the Environmental Law. This was due to spills oflubricating oil, which contain hydrocarbons. While, the mean values of dissolved petroleum hydrocarbons outlet collected channel and receiving bay were 2.05!-Lg/1 and 2.09!-Lg/1. These values were below the toxic level to aquatic organisms (0.05mg/l) in the seawater. 4- 1ue inlet cooling water values of uranium radioactivity series had mean average of 7.2 mBq/1. While the outlet mean average 7.9 mBq/1 and receiving stream mean average 7.5 mBq/1. All these values of cooling sites are less than the limit of (ICRP) International Commit for Radiation Protection for uranium radioactivity in marine environment, which is 33mBq/l. This indicates that there is no impact of radiation from uranium on Abou-Qir Bay region. 5- The inlet cooling water values of 4°K radioactivity had mear1 average of 18.4 Bq/1. While the outlet cooling mean average 17.6 and receiving stream mean average 19.6 Bq/1. These values are above the background level of (ICRP) International Commit for Radiation Protection which is 11 Bq/1 for K-40 in marine environment, which indicates that Abou-Qir Bay region has an increased value of K-.40 radionuclied. This may be related to the abundance ofPotassium-40 in Abu­ Qir Bay rocks and sediments, which is naturally occurring.