NUCLEAR DESALINATION OPTIONS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL REACTOR INNOVATIVE AND SECURE (IRIS) DESIGN

The worldwide demand for potable water is on the rise. A recent market survey by the World Resources Institute shows a doubling in desalinated water production every ten years from both seawater and brackish water sources. The production of desalinated water is energy intensive, requiring approximately 3-6 kWh per cubic meter of produced desalted water. At current U.S. water use rates, 1 kW of energy capacity per capita (or 1000 MW for every one million people) would be required to meet water needs with desalted water. The choice of the desalination technology determines the form of energy required: electrical energy for reverse osmosis systems, relatively low quality thermal energy for distillation systems, and both electrical and thermal energy for hybrid systems such as pre-heat RO systems. Nuclear energy plants are attractive for large scale desalination application. Nuclear plants can provide both electrical and thermal energy in an integrated, co-generated fashion to produce a spectrum of energy products including electricity, desalted water, process heat, district heating, and potentially hydrogen generation. A particularly attractive option for nuclear desalination is to couple it with an advanced, modular, passively safe reactor design such as the International Reactor Innovative and Secure (IRIS) plant. This allows for countries with smaller electrical grid needs and infrastructure to add new electrical and desalination capacity in smaller increments and at distributed sites. The “safety by design ” nature of the IRIS reactor will ensure a safe and reliable source of energy even for countries wit