Title: Coupling pressurised water reactor to large scale SWRO desalination plants: an economic assessment

Authors: Ghada A. Al Bazedi; Mohamed H. Sorour; Shadia R. Tewfik; Abdelghani M.G. Abulnour; Heba A. Hani

Addresses: Chemical Engineering and Pilot Plant Department, National Research Centre, El-Bohouth Street, Dokki, P.O. Box 12622, Giza, Egypt ' Chemical Engineering and Pilot Plant Department, National Research Centre, El-Bohouth Street, Dokki, P.O. Box 12622, Giza, Egypt ' Chemical Engineering and Pilot Plant Department, National Research Centre, El-Bohouth Street, Dokki, P.O. Box 12622, Giza, Egypt ' Chemical Engineering and Pilot Plant Department, National Research Centre, El-Bohouth Street, Dokki, P.O. Box 12622, Giza, Egypt ' Chemical Engineering and Pilot Plant Department, National Research Centre, El-Bohouth Street, Dokki, P.O. Box 12622, Giza, Egypt

Abstract: Water management via rational use, reuse practices and water desalination is the key element for mitigation of water shortage. This paper addresses small-scale nuclear systems as a cost-effective energy alternative for large-scale desalination plants. An empirical cost model has been derived and validated based on reported cost indicators and selected cases. The capital cost of 150,000 m³/d seawater desalination plant coupled to small nuclear reactors has been estimated to be between 3 and 11 M$/MWe, respectively. In addition, specific cost of nuclear desalination-steam cycle system SWRO (conventional pre-treatment), ranges between 0.046-0.064 $/kWh and 0.62-0.667 $/m³ for energy and water, respectively. Cost indicators of different desalination systems show that product water cost ranges between 0.62 and 0.779 $/m³ when applying nuclear power as an energy source for RO, RO/MED, MED while when applying oil/gas as an energy source the product water cost ranges between 1.12 and 1.89 $/m³.

Keywords: nuclear desalination; reverse osmosis; SMRs; PWR; cost function.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNGEE.2019.100634

International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology, 2019 Vol.4 No.3, pp.198 - 211

Received: 16 Aug 2016
Accepted: 18 Jul 2017
Published online: 06 Jul 2019 *