Comprehensive techno-economic analysis of integrated nuclear power plant equipped with various hybrid desalination systems

Recently, the development of integrated nuclear power plants (NPPs) for electricity production and seawater desalination has generated considerable interest among researchers. For the past ten years, there has been a rapid rise in the thermo-economic assessment of using nuclear power to supply the required energy for large-scale desalination plants (DPs). Despite all the conducted efforts to increase the reliability of nuclear desalination plants (NDPs), many governments are still reluctant to use them because of safety considerations. Economic benefits and high-efficiency of the co-generation system are the most significant factors that can persuade governments to implement NDPs. With that being said, the major aim of this study is to develop a new computer code to evaluate the economic aspects of various hybrid desalination schemes coupled with NPPs. In this paper after reviewing various aspects of hybrid desalination schemes, the mathematical formulations for evaluating techno-economic analysis are given. The evidence from this study suggests that using the rejected water (hot stream) of the NPP's condenser as the feed water for the DP can be considered as the best option for optimizing the total cost of nuclear desalination.