Techno-Economic and Environmental Assessment of the Second Unit of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) Complex Equipped with Possible Hybrid Desalination Processes

In many world regions, the water shortage problem is already leading to severe proportions. To alleviate the stress being placed on water resources, additional freshwater production capacity must be developed. Desalination is s one of the possible strategies to solve freshwater shortage concerns. However, desalination is an energy-intensive process. Therefore, the increasing demand for desalted water creates a collateral demand for increased production of energy. In developing countries, policymakers' interest in introducing large-scale nuclear power plants in their energy portfolio provides an excellent opportunity for developing nuclear desalination as a sustainable solution to face water scarcity. The authors in this paper conduct a techno-economic and environmental assessment of coupling two schemes of hybrid desalination systems (MED+RO) with the second block of the BNNP complex. The obtained results estimate that with the capacity of 100,000 m3/day as a co-product of electricity generation, the second block of BNNP could produce 34.6 million cubic meters of freshwater yearly, at the lowest cost of 1.87 $/m3. Furthermore, it is shown that nuclear desalination in Iran has the potential to reduce annual 258,199 tons of CO2, 1,070 tons of SO2, and 962 tons NOx emissions in the case of implementing an integrated hybrid desalination system in the BNPP complex.

Keywords:

Nuclear desalination , Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant , Techno-Economic assessment , Environmental impacts , Hybrid systems