NUCLEAR ENERGY BASED DESALINATION

R V Singh1
ABSTRACT
In the IAEA terminology, Nuclear Desalination is defined to be the production of potable water
from seawater in a facility in which a nuclear reactor is used as the source of energy for the
desalination process. Electrical and/or thermal energy may be used in the desalination process on
the same site. The facility may be dedicated solely to the production of potable water, or may be
used for the generation of electricity and production of potable water, in which case only a
portion of the total energy output of the reactor is used for water production. The design
approaches for a nuclear desalination plant are essentially derived from those of the nuclear
reactor alone, with some additional aspects to be considered in the design of a desalination plant
and its integration with the nuclear system. All nuclear reactor types can provide the energy
required by the various desalination processes. In this regard, it has been shown that Small and
Medium Reactors (SMRs) offer the largest potential as coupling options to nuclear desalination
systems in developing countries. The development of innovative reactor concepts and fuel cycles
with enhanced safety features as well as their attractive economics are expected to improve the
public acceptance and further the prospects of nuclear desalination. The coupling with nuclear
system is not difficult technically but needs some consideration in (a) avoiding crosscontamination by radioactivity, (b) providing backup heat or power sources in case the nuclear
system is not in operation (e.g. for refuelling and maintenance), (c) incorporation of certain
design features, minimising the impact of the thermal desalination systems coupling to the
nuclear reactors .

Keywords: Nuclear Desalination, Green House Gases (GHG) Emmission, multi-effect

distillation (MED), Multi-Stage Flash (MSF), Reverse Osomosis (RO)
INTRODUCTION
Looking to the future, there are several reasons for focusing now on expanding nuclear powers
contribution to desalination. Apart from the expanding demand for freshwater and the increasing
concern about GHG emissions and pollution from fossil fuels, there is a renewed and growing
emphasis on small and medium sized nuclear reactors, and this is particularly important for
desalination because the countries most in need of new sources of freshwater often have limited
industrial infrastructures and relatively weaker electricity grids. The size of the grid limits the
possibilities for integrating a co-generating nuclear power plant into the grid to supply the
electricity market, in addition to meeting the energy requirements of a desalination plant. The
largest power unit that can be integrated into an electricity grid must not exceed about 10-20 % of
the total grid capacity. Of course, smaller nuclear reactors would be more appropriate for remote
areas that are not suitable for connections to the grid. For nuclear desalination to be attractive in
any given country, two conditions have to be satisfied simultaneously: a lack of water and the
ability to use nuclear energy for desalination. Desalination of seawater is possible by using either
Reverse Osmosis (RO) or Thermal processes. Electrical and/or thermal energy from atomic
power station or nuclear research reactor can be used for this purpose. Bhabha Atomic Research
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Centre (BARC) has developed desalination plants based on both Reverse Osmosis (RO) as well
as thermal processes. An eighteen lakh (18 lakh) litres per day capacity sea water desalination
plant operating on the Reverse Osmosis (RO) process has been setup, as part of Nuclear
Desalination Demonstration Project (NDDP) at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu. Another plant, a MultiStage Flash (MSF) Sea Water Desalination Plant with a capacity of forty five lakh (45 lakh) litres
per day has also been setup at Kalpakkam as a part of NDDP. It is located adjacent to Madras
Atomic Power Station (MAPS) and uses low pressure steam as energy input for MSF desalination
plant. The hybrid MSF-RO plant is operated to produce distilled water for high end industrial
applications and potable water for drinking and other applications. Currently, the NDDP is the
only one plant of its kind operating in the world with the objectives of utilising nuclear heat and
electricity to achieve desalination. In most regions, only one of the two is present. Both are
present for example in China, the Republic of Korea, India and Pakistan. These regions already
account for almost half the worlds population, and thus represent a potential long term market
for nuclear desalination. The market will expand further to the extent that regions with high
projected water needs, such as the Middle East and North Africa, increase their nuclear expertise
and capabilities.
The total number of desalination plant worldwide are 17000+ ; The global capacity of
commissioned desalination plants is more than 80 million cubic meters per day; The number of
countries where desalination is practiced are 150 and the number of people around the world who
rely on desalinated water for some or all their daily needs are more than 300 million (as of 2013,
IDA) . Use of nuclear energy in desalination not only reduce the cost of water production in long
term but also help in reducing carbon foot print by lessening pressure on fossil fuels.

DESALINATION METHODS
Large scale commercially available desalination processes can generally be classified into two
categories: (a) distillation or thermal processes that require mainly heat plus some electricity for
ancillary equipment, and (b) membrane processes that require only electricity. In the first
category (distillation) there are two major processes: multi-stage flash (MSF) and multi-effect
distillation (MED). In both processes, seawater is heated; the steam that evaporates is condensed
and collected as freshwater; and the residual brine is discharged. In the second category
(membranes) is the reverse osmosis process (RO), in which pure water passes from the highpressure seawater side of a semi-permeable membrane to the low-pressure freshwater side. The
pressure differential must be high enough to overcome the natural tendency for water to move
from the low concentration freshwater side of a membrane to the high concentration seawater
side in order to balance osmotic pressures. The most popular methods used in desalination are
multi-stage flash distillation, which uses heat to evaporate water, leaving the salt behind, and
which accounted for 84% of desalination in 2004; and reverse osmosis desalination, which is less
energy intensive but still requires a great deal of energy to pump water

ECONOMICS OF NUCLEAR DESALINATION

As Per report of IAEAs International Nuclear Desalination Advisory Group (INDAG), a second
Coordinated Research Project (CRP2) on Economic Research on, and Assessment of, Selected
Nuclear Desalination Projects and Case Studies with the participation of ten Member States,
completed in 2006, cost of desalination is revealed. Member States, which participated in the
CRP were: Argentina, China, Egypt, France, India, Republic of Korea, Pakistan, Russian
Federation, Syrian Arab Republic and the USA. The economics of nuclear desalination through
the report reflect the current practices, data, and assumptions specific to each participating

country for the cost evaluations of nuclear and conventional water and energy cogeneration
systems and their inter-comparisons. The values of various economic parameters are therefore
country specific, site specific and are dependent on several factors and the economic assumptions
used. However, the case studies have shown that, in general, the nuclear desalination costs can
vary from 0.5 to 0.94 $/m3 for reverse osmosis (RO), from 0.6 to 0.96 $/m3 for multi effect
distillation (MED) and from 1.18 to 1.48 $/m3 for multi stage flash (MSF) plants.
All nuclear options are economically attractive as compared with the gas turbine combined cycle
based desalination systems as long as gas prices remain higher than 150 $/to 21 $/bbl. water
desalination cost from an RO plant coupled with nuclear power plant operating on the steam
cycle (NSC) is about 35% lower than the same desalination plant coupled with Oil/Gas power
plant operating on the steam cycle (OSC). The (RO + NSC) is 6% lower than the RO plant
coupled with coal fired power plant operating on steam cycle (CSC). The cost of water
production from coal fired power plant operating on the steam cycle is about 31% lower than an
oil fired power plant when coupled with the RO plant. Comparison of nuclear power plant
operating on the combined cycle with the oil powered plant with same cycle shows that the cost
of desalination of the former is about 19% lower than the latter using the RO. Water production
cost of RO coupled with nuclear power plant operating on the gas cycle (NGC) is about 32%
cheaper than RO coupled with oil powered plant operating on gas cycle (OGC).
Three year back from now, as per Facility Director, BARC Facilities at Kalpakkam, Chennai, the
cost of producing distilled water, factoring in the cost of power, steam, chemicals, maintenance
and depreciation, using MSF technology is 10 paisa per litre, and 6 paisa per litre in the case of
reverse osmosis, Energy input accounts for 35 to 45% of the total cost of producing desalinated
water using reverse osmosis.

Table 2 : SEAWATER DESALINATION COST

Year

Capitalcost
(US$/dailym3)
1980
1500
1990
10001200
2000
8001000
2010
500700
Source: BARC News Letter

Watercost
(US$/m3)
1.25
1.01.2
0.81.0
0.50.7

CONCERNS ABOUT DESALINATION

There are three main environmental considerations when building a desalination plant:
How sea water is brought in i.e. How Water Intake is set up
How the drinkable water is separated out
What happens to the salt afterward i.e. Brine waste Discharge

Water Intake: It depends how an intake is set up. The simplest intake is essentially a straw in
the ocean - a design that risks trapping and killing sea life. It may suck in more than just water,
thereby trapping and killing sea life, such as tiny fish eggs and larvae.One solution is to affix a
grate to the end of such a pipe, but even then, tiny larvae and fish eggs can still be sucked in.
Instead, regulators tend to prefer whats known as a subsurface intake.
High Power Consumption: To remove salt, water is pumped through filters/membrane through
very high pressure. Doing this with thousand of gallons of water per minute requires tremendous
amount of energy. This is the second concern with desalination: once the seawater gets to the

plant, it has to be pushed through membranes fine enough that salt cant pass through them. That
requires immense pressure on the order of a pressure-washer. Experince shows that a smaller
desal facility takes $25,000 of electricity per month to produce enough water for 1,200 homes.

Brine Waste Discharge: This the third concern with desalination. Only about half of the
saltwater piped into a desal plant is made drinkable. All the salt thats separated out ends up
concentrated into the other half, in a kind of brine thats much denser than seawater. As a result, it
doesnt easily mix back in.If its just dumped carelessly back into the ocean, it sinks, and can kill
any marine life having the misfortune of dwelling on the seafloor .
SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS
The overall safety issues associated with an integrated nuclear desalination facility are primarily
those associated with the nuclear plant itself which are already taken care of in specific reactor
safety studies. During Nuclear desalination only safety issues caused by the coupling between a
reactor system and a desalination plant is to be taken care of. These issues are related to:
The potential for the transfer of radioactive materials from the nuclear plant to the desalination
system during normal operation or as a result of an incident or accident. This issue involves an
evaluation of the adequacy of the adopted containment-confinement boundaries in terms of
number of barriers and their effectiveness.
The potential for more severe reactor system transients induced by transients in the desalination
plant, either during normal operation or as a result of an accident.
The safety impact of these issues is strongly dependent on the adopted coupling scheme.

SAFETY BARRIERS
The fact of coupling the nuclear reactor to any of the above mentioned processes does not reduce
the number of safety barriers as compared to the standard nuclear plant configuration. Thus the
usual barriers are maintained in all cases: fuel matrix, fuel cladding, primary circuit and the
reactor containment system. In the case of coupling through the condenser, an additional safety
barrier are the main condenser tubes.
In normal operation, the main condenser is at a lower pressure compared to its environment.
There is thus no leakage of the secondary side steam outside the condenser.
Nevertheless, the integration of the nuclear plant with the desalination system can lead to a
modification of the radioactive exposure pathways. This is due to the possibility that radioactive
materials could be released to the potable water and not to the sea or to the river through
the interface boundaries between the nuclear facility and the desalination system, e.g. main
condenser or main condenser cooling water. Potential radioactive releases can be a consequence
of normal operation routine releases i.e. normal operating leakage at interface boundaries
or accidental events.
Radioactive releases to potable water can be prevented by a combination of design and
operational provisions as discussed below:
Leakages during normal operations can be precluded by assuring a leak-tight boundary and by
maintaining a dynamic barrier, i.e. higher pressure on the process side (as compared to the reactor
side) at the interface boundary for both the coupling schemes. In this case routine radioactive
releases at the interface boundary are expected to be negligible. For MED coupling scheme, the
dynamic barrier is obtained maintaining the cooling loop at higher pressure using a lamination
valve.
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It is also important that the feed-water suction line be placed upstream of any waste liquid release
discharge point located in the main condenser cooling water stream.
In case of accident conditions at the nuclear plant which can result in an increase of the
secondary side contamination or a loss of vacuum in the condenser including condenser tube
rupture the desalination plant has to be put in shut-down condition in order to prevent a
potential contamination of the potable water. This protective action permits the standard
exposure pathways associated with the reactor accident situations to be re-established.
The water produced by the desalination system could be stored and monitored for radiological
contamination before its distribution.

REDUCING ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND ADDRESSING ENVIRONMENTAL

CONCERNS
Today, developments in desalination technologies are specifically aimed at reducing energy
consumption and cost, as well as minimizing environmental impacts. Advancements include such
new and emerging technologies as forward osmosis, low temperature distillation, membrane
distillation, pressure retarded osmosis, biomimetic and graphene membranes. Hybrid plants
(especially those using MED) and reverse osmosis are gaining wider use in the Middle East,
which has traditionally been home to facilities using more energy-intensive thermal technologies
such as MSF.
The desalination industry is also paying a great deal of attention to environmental considerations.
Environmental safeguards have become increasingly important in siting and permitting of new
plants. Monitoring programs are being more widely utilized. Lower energy consumption reduces
also a plants carbon footprint, and in addition, new technologies are being used successfully to
lessen disruptions to marine life during the intake and outfall processes. Studies such as IDAs
Blue Paper on Desalination and the Gulf have raised awareness of steps to leverage best practices
and mitigate potential environmental effects of desalination.
While energy consumption has been significantly reduced in the past two decades, IDAs Energy
Task Force had specifically challenged the desalination industry to achieve a further reduction of
20% in energy requirements for seawater desalination by 2015.

CHALLENGES TO NUCLEAR DESALINATION

Desalination may face some challenges, among which are public perception, financing, the
transfer of nuclear technology and considerations for the safety of the coupling options selected.
Nuclear desalination faces several major challenges especially in the case of introducing the first
nuclear unit in a country, i.e. the high capital investment needed upfront, risks associated with
nuclear power operation, i.e. accidents, proliferation and radioactive waste, and last not least the
significant effort needed to install and maintain an adequate nuclear infrastructure. Establishing a
pool of human resources that are capable of dealing with the mentioned 69 specific issues is also
among the preconditions that need to be met for nuclear power/desalination..All of these
challenges have to be taken into consideration when nuclear desalination is assessed for
suitability in addressing water and energy shortages, comparing it to the available alternatives.

Table-1. OVERNIGHT COSTS2 OF POWER PLANTS

Typeofplant
Specificcosts
(US$/kW(e))

Nuclear
1074to
2614

Coal
719to
2347

Gas
424to
1262

Oil
2520

Hydro
1541to
6985

Wind
976to
2622

SolarPV
3363to
10164

( 2 Overnight cost is the amount that would be paid out if all capital expenses occurred simultaneously. It
includes no interest charges.)

As nuclear power has large upfront costs, one of the issues of nuclear desalination is the financial
capability of the investor. The high investment costs (see Table 12 for specific investment costs)
of nuclear power are primarily caused by the highly sophisticated design of nuclear technology
that requires special materials and manufacturing processes of highest quality, and elaborate
measures taken in the design to assure safe and reliable performance during operation.

Additionally, the typical large size of a nuclear power plant with around 1000 MW(e) (or more)
and the relatively long duration of the construction (up to 6 years) resulting in high capital cost
(interest) increases the necessary total investment. To enable the financing of such high
investment special financial instruments are to be used.
Another main challenge is public perception of risks associated with nuclear power, first of all the
possibility of a severe accident causing extreme damage to the public and environment. The two
major accidents that happened in the 1970s and 1980s in nuclear power plants in the USA (with
no impact on the environment) and former Soviet Union (with a major impact on people and
environment) respectively, had major consequences on nuclear power development. Yet, the
lessons learned form these accidents have led to retrofitting of operating nuclear units and
improved new designs thereby excluding the possibility of reoccurrence of such accidents.
Another risk frequently discussed in public is the possibility of nuclear proliferation, i.e. the
misuse of a peaceful application of nuclear energy for development of nuclear weapons.
However, based on the international treaty of Non Proliferation (NPT) the international regime of
safeguards in the responsibility of the IAEA has been successfully preventing non proliferation
worldwide (in its Member States). It is common understanding in regard to the risk of a terrorist
attack on nuclear power plants that they are the least suited targets of terrorist attacks due to their
extremely high security measures in comparison to other sensitive facilities. The concrete dome
of a nuclear power plant, designed to prevent an accident spill over to the environment, is also
capable to withstand a plane crash.

ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGE

Nuclear power faces several challenges as discussed above, but all of them can be mitigated by
appropriate technical or institutional measures. One of the biggest issues however, is the public
perception of risks associated with nuclear power. As suggested, establishing public acceptance
right from the beginning of a nuclear project requires that the public to be informed and involved
accordingly. The financing of a nuclear project needs special financial instruments. Last not least
the construction and safe operation of a nuclear power plant needs a special infrastructure to be
maintained during the life time of the plant and for nuclear waste long term measures have to be
taken. Nuclear power has accumulated an impressive base of experience with more than 10,000
reactor years of operation. It can therefore certainly be called a mature technology. Due to
economy of scale, currently, the typical size of a commercially available nuclear power plant is in

the range of about 1000 to 1600 MW(e). Although from the aspect of costs per product they can
be considered very cheap, the upfront costs are a huge impediment for the deployment of nuclear
power. Addressing this very important issue, a large number of smaller nuclear units is under
development, though none of them has fully reached the status of a proven design. It is expected
that within the next decade also smaller nuclear reactors will become commercially available.
About 60 concepts of small and medium sized reactors (SMR) are under development in 13
IAEA Member States with different levels of maturity of the design.

CONCLUSION
Unfortunately, the desalination process is not necessarily a clean one. According to Direct
Energy, it is still almost always cheaper to use local freshwater than to desalinate seawater. And
desalination, as with nearly all industrial processes, typically sources its energy from dirty
carbon-based resources. Nuclear power therefore offers an appealing solutionin terms of
availability and reliability it is competitive with fossil fuels, and meets all the essential
requirements in order to feed a desalination plant. Because nuclear energy seawater desalination
creates minimal environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, it holds tremendous
potential for the future production of freshwater. Nuclear desalination is not a new technology,
and desalination methods date back millennia. Furthermore, the need for water and sources of
water is only going to increase. We need desalination plants that dont run on fossil fuels, and
nuclear desalination plants fit the bill perfectly. The desalination of seawater using nuclear energy
is a feasible option to meet the growing demand for potable water. Over 175 reactor-years of
operating experience on nuclear desalination have already been accumulated worldwide.

RV Singh1 :Vice President, JITF Water Infrastructure Limited, New Delhi

References:

http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/te_1561_web.pdf
http://ansnuclearcafe.org/2015/09/16/nuclear-desalination-technology-for-a-thirsty-planet/

http://idadesal.org/desalination-101/desalination-overview/
IAEA-TECDOC-1642
http://www.barc.gov.in/publications/nl/2001/200109-01.pdf
www.scirp.org/journal/PaperDownload.aspx?paperID=26377