Water Requirements of the Jordanian Nuclear Power Plant

Nonconventional water resources have been allocated by the government of Jordan to provide cooling water for the first Jordanian Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). These resources included reclaimed wastewater from AsSamra Wastewater Treatment Plant, and groundwater from the deep aquifers (more than a 1000 meter depth) in the vicinity of the NPP site. This decision generated great attention and its soundness has been questioned by many skeptics of the nuclear program in Jordan. To address these concerns, this study focused on the reliability of the quality and quantity of the allocated resources. Statistical analyses using six different distribution functions (Normal, Log-Normal, 3 Parameter Gamma, Log-Pearson Type Three, Gumbel, and General Extreme Value) were performed for the nine regulated quality parameters of AsSamra WWTP effluent and compared with the relevant Russian cooling water standards since Russian reactors are chosen. Results indicated that some parameters (Total Dissolved Solids, Chloride, total and carbonate hardness) concentrations did not meet the Russian standards and thus require a tertiary treatment. In addition, a 3D finite difference flow model (Processing MODFLOW) was developed to study the deep aquifers response and to investigate the resulted drawdown under different pumpage scenarios representing the allocated quantities. The resulted drawdowns exceeded the one tenth of the aquifer thickness limit that is commonly used and the maximum allowable pumpage rates were smaller than the allocated ones.