A Technical and Economic Evaluation of Reverse Osmosis Nuclear Desalination as Applied at the Muria Site in Indonesia

Abstract

In many regions of the world, the supply of renewable water resources is inadequate to meet current needs. and that from non-renewable sources is being rapidly depleted. Since the worldwide demand for potable water is steadily growing. the result is water shortages that are already reaching serious proportions in many regions. This is particularly true in Indonesia where there is an increasing reliance on bottled water due to shortage of safe, fresh drinking water. To mitigate the stress being placed on water resources. additional fresh water production capability must be developed. Because of Indonesia's long coastline, seawater desalination is a good alternative. The main drawback of desalination, however, is that it is an energy intensive process. Therefore, the increasing global demand for desalted water creates a tremendous collateral demand for new sources of electrical power. In addition to providing a means of meeting regional electricity demand, the CANDU nuclear reactor can also serve as an energy source for a reverse osmosis (RO) seawater desalination plant. In conjunction with the use of electrical energy, waste heat from the reactor is used in the desalination plant to improve the efficiency of the RO process. This is done by using condenser cooling water being discharged from the CANDU reactor as a source of preheated feedwater for the RO system. The system design also makes use of advanced feedwater pretreatmentt and sophisticated design optimization analyses. The net result is improved efficiency of energy utilization, increased potable water production capability, reduced product water cost and reduced environmental burden. This approach to the integration of a seawater desalination plant with a CANDU nuclear reactor has the advantage of maximizing the benefits of system integration while at the same time minimizing the impacts of physical interaction between the two systems. Consequently. transients in one plant do not necessarily have adverse effects on the other. In co-operation with BPPT of Indonesia, CANDESAL and AECL have performed an evaluation of this nuclear desalination concept to establish the design, performance and economic characteristics of a large scale reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant coupled with a CANDU reactor, operating under conditions appropriate to the Muria site in Indonesia. The results of the evaluation are discussed herein.