The numerical model, FLUENT, was employed to investigate the effect of the heated water discharged from the diffuser of Boryung Power Plant. Temperature patterns of the thermal effluent discharged from two proposed types of the diffusers was evaluated for maximum flood and maximum ebb tide. The hydraulic model experiments were also performed in the reduced scale of 1/150 to verify the numerical simulation results. The buoyant jets discharged from the diffusers were found to be significantly affected by the ambient flows beyond the region where the effluent momentum was dissipated. Both the numerical and experimental results showed that the area of the excess isotherm for Type 1 diffuser was larger than that for Type 2 diffuser. Type 2 diffuser system was observed to be a more effective diffuser design than Type 1 diffuser system based on the temperature reduction and excess isotherm obtained from the numerical simulation in the ambient flows.