Market context

In recent years, the option of combining nuclear power with seawater desalination has been explored to tackle water shortage problems. 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 been accumulated worldwide. Several demonstration programs of nuclear desalination are also in progress to confirm its technical and economical viability under country-specific conditions, with technical coordination or support of IAEA.

There are many reasons that favour a possible revival of nuclear power production in the years to come: the development of innovative reactor concepts and fuel cycles with enhanced safety features that are expected to improve public acceptance, the production of less expensive energy as compared to other options, the need for prudent use of fossil energy sources, and increasing requirements to curtail the production of greenhouse gases (GHGs). It is estimated that water production of 10 million m³/d by seawater desalination using fossil fuels would release 200 million t/y of CO2, 200 000 t/y of SO₂, 60 000 t/y of NO_x and 16 000 t/y of other hydrocarbons. For the current global desalting plant capacity of 40 million m³/d the total emissions would be four times these values. This can be avoided if nuclear or renewable energy sources are used for desalination. It is estimated that for producing fresh water with the present desalination capacity, but by using nuclear energy, the needed nuclear capacity would be about 40 1000 MWe nuclear reactors.

Using nuclear energy for the production of freshwater from seawater and brackish aquifers (nuclear desalination) has been of interest in several IAEA Member States as a result of acute water shortage issues in many arid and semi-arid zones worldwide. This stems from their expectation of not only its possible contribution to the freshwater issue, but has also been motivated by a variety of reasons that include: likely competitiveness of nuclear desalination in areas lacking cheap hydropower or fossil resources, energy supply diversification, conservation of fossil fuel resources, and spin-off effects of nuclear technology for industrial development.

2.2.1. Nuclear desalination market - past experiences and plans [4]

The desalination of seawater using nuclear energy is a demonstrated option having over 180 reactor-years of operating experience worldwide, of which Japan now has over 150 reactor-reactor-years, with ten nuclear power plants that also produce desalinated water. Kazakhstan (the Aktau fast reactor BN-350) had accumulated 26 reactor-years of producing 80,000 m³/day of potable water before shutting down in 1999. In the USA, the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant produces desalinated water. Presently

India and Pakistan are setting up nuclear demonstration projects at their existing PHWRs. Operating experience for all non-electric applications including desalination, district heating and process heat is around 1000 reactor years (Table 1.2).

Table 2.1 summarizes past experience as well as current developments and plans for nuclear-powered desalination using different nuclear reactor types. Most of the technologies in Table 2.1 are land-based, but the table also includes a Russian initiative for barge-mounted floating desalination plants.

Floating desalination plants could be especially attractive for responding to emergency demands for potable water.

Table 2.1. Reactor types used or considered for desalination Reactor

Type

Location Capacity (m³ /d) Status

LMFR Kazakhstan (Aktau) 80,000 In service till 1999 PWRs Japan (Ohi, Takahama, Ikata,

Genkai) 1,000-2,000 In service with operating

experience of over 150 reactor-years

Rep. of Korea 40,000 SMART integral PWR is being

designed

Russia Floating Power Unit for

electricity and heat is under construction; possible later units could be used for electricity and desalination

USA (Diablo Canyon) ~4500 In service

BWR Japan (Kashiwazaki) Never in service following

testing in 1980s; owing to alternative freshwater sources, dismantled in 1999

HWR India (Madras) 6,300 Under commissioning (RO

commissioned in 2002, MSF to be commissioned by the end of 2007).

Pakistan (KANUPP) 4,800 Under construction, to be commissioned by the end of 2007

NHR China 120,000 Under design

HTGR South Africa, France, The Netherlands

Under consideration

Table 2.2 shows the operating nuclear desalination plants in Japan.

Table 2.2. Operating nuclear desalination plants in Japan

Plant

The salient features of the existing and proposed nuclear desalination demonstration projects and a number of feasibility studies conducted by interested Member States [5] are given in Annex 1.

2.2.2. Economics [3]

Over the years, the cost of water produced in seawater desalination plants has dropped considerably, but the cost of water produced in conventional treatment plants has risen, due to over-exploitation of aquifers, intrusion of saline water in coastal areas, and generally increasing contamination of ground water. Fig 2.2 shows the water costs from global seawater desalination and conventional production (in various countries). Seawater desalination costs are already comparable to conventional water costs in water scarce/starved countries and are likely to approach each other even in the countries having cheap, abundant water sources. This makes the prospects of seawater desalination quite promising.

FIG. 2.2. Development of water costs (reprinted with the permissionof the author) [3].

Fig. 2.3 shows the capacity of desalination plants in various countries. As can be seen, the major contribution comes from the Middle East countries, followed by US, Spain, and the Caribbean countries. In recent years, plans for large-scale deployment of desalination in Asia and Pacific countries have been reported.

Presently, the total capacity of desalination plants worldwide is of the order of thirty-six million cubic meters/day. The major contribution comes from the Middle East countries.

Desalination processes are energy intensive, and energy is the major cost component of the water produced. As most of the current desalination is based on fossil energy sources, the cost of desalted water varies with the prevailing fuel costs in particular areas. Apart from the fossil fuel cost and its availability, the associated environmental concerns of late have kept in abeyance the launching of some large-scale desalination projects. This has led to a search for renewable and other sustainable energy sources including nuclear.

There are no officially reported cost data from existing nuclear desalination plants. Several feasibility studies, however, have been carried out by the Member States under the IAEA’s coordinated research projects and technical cooperation programmes. Some results are reported in IAEA-TECDOC-1561 [6].

Preliminary techno-economic studies conducted in China for the NHR-200 reactor coupled to a 160,000 m³/d vertical-tube evaporator multi-effect distillation (VTE-MED) plant estimated the desalted water cost to be around 0.68 US$/m³. A similar economic evaluation of the integrated SMART-MED desalination plant of 40,000 m³/d capacity indicated the water cost ranging from 0.70 to 0.90 US$/m³. The projected cost of water from the Russian KLT-40 floating reactor based nuclear desalination plants is also in these same ranges. These costs are comparable with desalination costs using locally available fossil fuels.

Pre-feasibility studies have been carried out recently for the proposed nuclear desalination projects at Madura, Indonesia, and La-Skhira, Tunisia, under an IAEA technical cooperation inter-regional project (1999-2004). These indicate economic competitiveness of nuclear desalination over fossil-based plants under the specific conditions in their countries.

Despite large interest of the Member States which are considering deployment of nuclear desalination plants and IAEA’s efforts in bringing about information exchange among the technology providers and the user countries, no significant progress is reported in the deployment of nuclear desalination plants. Today nuclear desalination contributes only 0.1 % of total desalting capacity worldwide.

Economic comparison with fossil desalination

Table 2.3 provides some comparative water costs of present-day fossil-based desalination plants and projected costs of water from nuclear desalination projects from recent feasibility studies in Member States.

Table 2.3. Water costs from fossil desalination plants and estimated costs from nuclear desalination

Country Capacity (m³/d) Process Water costs ($/m³) Fossil based

Singapore 135,000 RO 0.45

Ashkelon (Israel) 165,000 RO 0.52

Al-Taweelah (UAE) Fujairah

237,500 375,000

MED MSF-RO

0.70 0.80 Nuclear based

Argentina (CAREM) 12,000 RO 0.72

China (NHR-200) 160,000 MED 0.68

Rep. of Korea (SMART)

40,000 MED 0.80

The projected costs for nuclear desalination appear to be marginally higher than the actual costs from present-day commercial desalination plants using fossil sources. Various aspects of cost reduction strategies in nuclear desalination are presently being proposed to make it more competitive.

Table 2.4 shows the desired objectives to be achieved for producing potable water economically from nuclear desalination plants [7].

Table 2.4. Desired objectives for economic costs Desalination plant cost 1500-800 $/m³

plant life

The broader picture, however, is that the worldwide use of desalination is still negligible compared to the demand for fresh water. To become a noticeable market for nuclear energy, desalination needs to compete successfully with alternative means of increasing fresh water supply. For nuclear desalination to be attractive in any given country, two factors must be in place simultaneously: a lack of fresh water and the ability to use nuclear energy for desalination. In most regions, only one of the two is present.

Both are present for example in China, the Republic of Korea and, even more so, in India and Pakistan. These regions already account for almost half the world’s population, and thus represent a potential long-term market for nuclear desalination.