Potential of nuclear desalination in the Arabian Gulf countries

Arabian Gulf countries are located in an arid area with limited water resources. Hydrological investigations point to large resources of underground water, but they are saline and need to be desalted. The best choice for providing fresh water in the Arabian Gulf countries is through seawater desalination with ground water as a back up. About 65% of desalination plants that are in operation worldwide are located in the Arabian Gulf countries, most of which are the dual-purpose multistage flash (MSF) plants, producing power and water. Reverse osmosis (RO) is used mainly for brackish water treatment and a limited number of multiple effect distillation (MED) plants are used in the Arabian Gulf countries. The use of nuclear desalination is practically essential in these countries where massive quantities of water are desalinated and there is a fast increase in power demand. There is no technical impediment to the use of nuclear reactors for supply of either heat or electricity or both to a desalination plant. However, the cost effectiveness of nuclear desalination is a site dependent matter. The type of desalination process and the size and type of the nuclear reactor have to be determined based on the specific site data. MSF plants are considered as energy intensive processes where energy cost is a major controlling parameter in the overall cost of desalination. Oil price fluctuations affect the cost of desalted water significantly, whereas nuclear power offers long term availability of indigenous fuel as well as long term fuel price stability. It has minimal environmental impact compared with other conventional desalination processes. This paper will discuss the potential of application of nuclear desalination in the Arabian Gulf countries. Various processes will be reviewed and most appropriate method selected.