Patent Number: 056446080
Section: claims

1. A method for cooling water from a spent fuel pool of a nuclear power generating plant comprising withdrawing water to be cooled from the spent fuel pool and passing the water to be cooled to and through a heat exchanger for transferring heat from the water to be cooled flowing on one side of a heat exchanger surface of the heat exchanger to a coolant medium flowing on the other side of the heat exchanger surface, comprising causing a flow of air as coolant medium to pass through said heat exchanger while spraying a fine mist of droplets of water into the flow of air to enhance the cooling capacity of the air. 2. The method of claim 1 including causing water from said fine mist of droplets of water to collect on said heat exchange surface as a thin film and evaporating water from said thin film to enhance overall heat transfer. 3. The method of claim 2 and including evaporating at least about one-third of the water sprayed into the heat exchanger within said heat exchanger. 4. The method of claim 1 including causing the flow of air by sucking ambient air through the heat exchanger with a fan. 5. The method of claim 1 comprising spraying the fine mist of droplets into the flow of air through a plurality of spaced nozzles. 6. The method of claim 5 including controlling the spraying of the fine mist by selectively activating only some nozzles of said plurality of nozzles. 7. The method of claim 1 wherein said droplets of water have a mean diameter of about 250 microns or less. 8. The method of claim 1 wherein said droplets of water have a mean diameter of about 150 microns or less. 9. The method of claim 1 wherein said droplets of water have a mean diameter of about 50 microns.