Nuclear seawater desalination plant coupled with 200 MW heating reactor

Abstract

A feasibility study on nuclear seawater desalination plant in which a 200 MW nuclear heating reactor (NHR-200) is coupled with MED processes has been completed, and the Chinese government has agreed to build a nuclear seawater desalination plant of this type in the Shandong Peninsula of China. Two different kinds of MED processes, high temperature stacked VTE-MED and low-temperature horizontal tube MED-TVC, have been investigated and compared, and their capacities for freshwater production are 160,000 m³/d and 120,000 m³/d, respectively. Based on the results of the feasibility study, the VTE-MED plant is more economical than the MED-TVC, but not on the technology maturity for a very large nuclear desalination plant. The two kinds of different nuclear desalination schemes and their primary economic results are presented in this paper.