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Seawater desalination plant using nuclear heating reactor coupled with MED process

Seawater desalination plant using nuclear heating reactor coupled with MED process

WU Shao-Rong
DONG Duo
ZHANG Da-Fang
WANG Xiu-Zhen
Nuclear Science and TechniquesVol.11, No.1pp.6-12Published in print 01 Feb 2000
25800

A small size plant for seawater desalination using nuclear heating reactor coupled with MED process was developed by the Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, China. This seawater desalination plant was designed to supply potable water demand to some coastal location or island where both fresh water and energy source are severely lacking. It is also recommended as a demonstration and training facility for seawater desalination using nuclear energy. The design of small size of seawater desalination plant couples two proven technologies: Nuclear Heating Reactor (NHR) and Multi-Effect Destination (MED) process. The NHR design possesses intrinsic and passive safety features, which was demonstrated by the experiences of the project NHR-5. The intermediate circuit and steam circuit were designed as the safety barriers between the NHR reactor and MED desalination system. Within 10~200 MWt of the power range of the heating reactor, the desalination plant could provide 8000 to 150,000 m3/d of high quality potable water. The design concept and parameters, safety features and coupling scheme are presented.

Nuclear desalinationNuclear heating reactorMED processDirect thermo-coupling
References
1 Wang D Z, Dong D et al. Nucl Power Eng (in Chinese), 1990, 11(5): 8~14
2 Dong D, Wu S R et al. J Tsinghua Univ (Science and technology) 1994, 34(ES2): 32~38
3 The nuclear desalination project in Morocco, IAEA-TECDOC-898, Aug. 1996, 105~106