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Conference Article: Techno-economic analysis of seawater desalination using high temperature gas-cooled reactor

L. Wu, Z. Qin (Tsinghua University, Beijing, China)

Abstract

Our world is facing the increased global shortage of potable water and pollution of water, so is China, especially in big cities and foreland, which is facing the power shortage as well. It is ideal to promote seawater desalination to satisfy the potable water demand in these areas. Among the various processes, MED, RO and VC have proved well developed and promising. Due to the inherent safety and its vapor produced with high parameters and features of small size and modular design, HTGR (High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor) of 2x200MW is chosen as the energy source for the desalination in dual production of clean water and power.

This paper is to discuss the techno-economic feasibility of different seawater desalting systems using 2x200MW HTGR in the areas mentioned above, that is, ST-MED (Steam Turbine Cycle), RO, MED/TVC, RO/MED and GT-MED (Gas Turbine Cycle). The exergy concept is used in calculating availability to get cost of energy in desalination, and power credit method is used in economic assessment of different systems to get reasonable evaluating, while economic-life levelized cost method is adopted for calculating electricity cost of referred HTGR plant. In addition, sensitivity analysis on ST-MED economy is also presented.

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key words: Gas Cooled Reactor, Nuclear Technology
Reference:
Proceedings of a Technical Committee Meeting held in Beijing, People's Republic of China, 2-4 November 1998
International Atomic Energy Agency, International Working Group on Gas-Cooled Reactors, Vienna (Austria)
IAEA-TECDOC--1210, pp:223-228