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A man sits by the river in Garbahaarey town in the Gedo region of Somalia. Photo by AMISOM Public Information/Flickr.

Droughts in Somalia. Water rationing in Rome. Flooding in Jakarta and Harvey-battered Houston. It doesn't take a hydrologist to realize that there is a growing global water crisis. Each August, water experts, industry innovators, and researchers gather in Stockholm for World Water Week to tackle the planet's most pressing water issues.

What are they up against this year? Here's a quick rundown on the growing global water crisis.

1) We're Changing the Climate, Making Dry Areas Drier and Precipitation More Variable and Extreme.

Climate change is warming the planet, making the world's hottest geographies even more scorching. At the same time, clouds are moving away from the equator toward the poles, due to a climate-change driven phenomenon called Hadley Cell expansion. This deprives equatorial regions like sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central America of life-giving rainwater.

Paradoxically, climate change is also increasing precipitation in other areas, and people who live near rivers and streams have the most to lose. Currently, at least 21 million people worldwide are at risk of river flooding each year. That number could increase to 54 million by 2030. All countries with the greatest exposure to river floods are least developed or developing countries - which makes them even more vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters. This summer, extreme flooding submerged over a third of Bangladesh, claiming over 115 lives and affecting 5.7 million citizens.

2) More People + More Money = More Water Demand.

It's a simple equation: As populations increase and incomes grow, so does water demand. The world's population, now at 7.5 billion, is projected to add 2.3 billion more people by 2050. How can the planet satisfy their thirst? Growing incomes also exacerbate the water problem, because of the water-intensive products-like meat and energy from fossil fuels -that richer populations demand.

3) Groundwater Is Being Depleted.

About 30 percent of Earth's fresh water lies deep underground in aquifers. And it's extracted daily for farming, drinking and industrial processes - often at dangerously unsustainable rates. Nowhere is this more evident than India, which guzzles more groundwater than any other country. 54 percent of India's groundwater wells are decreasing, meaning that water is used faster than it's replenished. Unless patterns shift, in 20 years, 60 percent of India's aquifers will be in critical condition.

Unlike an incoming hurricane or a drained lake, the naked eye cannot see when groundwater reserves in aquifers are declining. Global water supplies are susceptible to this hidden and growing threat.

4) Water Infrastructure Is in a Dismal State of Disrepair.

Having enough water to go around is only the beginning. That water also needs to be transported, treated, and discharged. Around the world, water infrastructure―treatment plants, pipes, and sewer systems―is in a state of disrepair. In the United States, 6 billion gallons of treated water are lost per day from leaky pipes alone. Built infrastructure is notoriously expensive to install and repair, meaning that many localities ignore growing infrastructure issues until disaster strikes, as it did in California earlier this year.

5) And Natural Infrastructure Is Being Ignored.

Heavy machinery removing trees in Ecuador. Flickr/CIFOR

Healthy ecosystems are " natural infrastructure" and vital to clean, plentiful water. They filter pollutants, buffer against floods and storms, and regulate water supply. Plants and trees are essential for replenishing groundwater; without them, rainfall will slide across dry land, instead of seeping into the soil. Loss of vegetation from deforestation, overgrazing and urbanization is limiting our natural infrastructure and the benefits that it provides. Forested watersheds around the world are under threat: watersheds have lost up to 22 percent of their forests in the past 14 years.

6) Water Is Wasted.

Although it's true that water is a renewable resource, it's often wasted. Inefficient practices like flood irrigation and water-intensive wet cooling at thermal power plants use more water than necessary. What's more, as we pollute our available water at an alarming rate, we also fail to treat it. About 80 percent of the world's wastewater is discharged back into nature without further treatment or reuse. In many countries, it's cheaper to receive clean drinking water than to treat and dispose of wastewater, which encourages water waste. This brings us to the next issue:

7) The Price Is Wrong.

Globally, water is seriously undervalued. Its price does not reflect the true, total cost of service, from its transport via infrastructure to its treatment and disposal. This has led to misallocation of water, and a lack of investments in infrastructure and new water technologies that use water more efficiently. After all, why would a company or government invest in expensive water-saving technologies, when water is cheaper than the technology in question? When the price of receiving clean water is closer to its actual service cost, efficient water use will be incentivized. And on the flip side, the poor often end up paying disproportionately high prices for water, stunting development.

It's Not Too Late

Amidst these seven deadly water sins, there is good news: governments, businesses, universities and citizens around the world are waking up to water challenges, and beginning to take action. Each year brings more solutions - like using wastewater for energy, using restoration to bring water back to dry topographies, and monitoring groundwater levels more closely. However, even the best solutions will not implement themselves. Along with fresh water, political will and public pressure are critical resources in ensuring a sustainable future for all.

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7 Reasons We're Facing a Global Water Crisis

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Droughts in Somalia. Water rationing in Rome. Flooding in Jakarta and Harvey-battered Houston. It doesn't take a hydrologist to realize that there is a growing global water crisis. Each August, water experts, industry innovators, and researchers gather in Stockholm for World Water Week to tackle the planet's most pressing water issues.

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Clean, safe drinking water is scarce. Today, nearly 1 billion people in the developing world don't have access to it. Yet, we take it for granted, we waste it, and we even pay too much to drink it from little plastic bottles.

Water is the foundation of life. And still today, all around the world, far too many people spend their entire day searching for it.

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Water Scarcity in Africa | The Water Project

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Water scarcity affects more than 1 billion people on a global scale. Learn more about water scarcity, the importance of water and how your donation can help.

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Potable water is in short supply in many parts of the world. Lack of it is set to become a constraint on development in some areas.

Nuclear energy is already being used for desalination, and has the potential for much greater use.

Nuclear desalination is generally very cost-competitive with using fossil fuels. "Only nuclear reactors are capable of delivering the copious quantities of energy required for large-scale desalination projects" in the future (IAEA 2015).

As well as desalination of brackish or sea water, treatment of urban waste water is increasingly undertaken.

It is estimated that one-fifth of the world's population does not have access to safe drinking water, and that this proportion will increase due to population growth relative to water resources. The worst-affected areas are the arid and semiarid regions of Asia and North Africa. A UNESCO report in 2002 said that the freshwater shortfall worldwide was then running at some 230 billion m ³/yr and would rise to 2000 billion m ³/yr by 2025. Wars over access to water, not simply energy and mineral resources, are conceivable.

A World Economic Forum report in January 2015 highlighted the problem and said that shortage of fresh water may be the main global threat in the next decade.

Fresh water is a major priority in sustainable development. Where it cannot be obtained from streams and aquifers, desalination of seawater, mineralised groundwater or urban waste water is required. A study in 2006 by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) showed that 2.3 billion people lived in water-stressed areas, 1.7 billion of them having access to less than 1000 m ³ of potable water per year. With population growth, these figures will increase substantially.

Water can be stored, while electricity at utility scale cannot. This suggests two synergies with base-load power generation for electrically-driven desalination: undertaking it mainly in off-peak times of the day and week, and load-shedding in unusually high peak times.

World Energy Outlook 2016 reported that in 2015, there were about 19,000 desalination plants worldwide, to provide water to both municipal and industrial users. Almost half of global installed desalination capacity was in the Middle East, followed by the European Union with 13%, the USA with 9%, and North Africa with 8%. Globally, seawater is the most common feedwater type, supplying about 60% of installed capacity, followed by brackish water at over 20%.

WEO 2016 also reported on energy consumption for desalination. The UAE used 556 TJ/yr, followed by Saudi Arabia 168 TJ/yr, Qatar 118 TJ/yr, and Kuwait 76 TJ/yr.

Cumulative investment in desalination plants reached about US$ 21.4 billion in 2015 and is expected at least to double by 2020 according to a 2016 report by market analyst, Research and Markets. The report, Seawater and Brackish Water Desalination, includes a prediction that investment by 2020 should top US$ 48 billion showing a compound annual growth rate of 17.6%. The report assesses the market for large industrial or municipal facilities with a capacity greater than 1,000 m³/day. It highlights a growing gap between freshwater resources and demand from all sectors.

Desalination

Most desalination today uses fossil fuels, and thus contributes to increased levels of greenhouse gases. Total world capacity in 2016 was 88.6 million m³/day (32,300 GL/yr) of potable water, in almost 19,000 plants. Of this, 73% is membrane desalination, and 27% thermal, though in the year to mid-2016, 93% of new capacity contracted was membrane. In 2015, over 65% of global installed desalination capacity was reverse osmosis (RO). A majority of the plants is in the Middle East and north Africa. Combining power generation and water production by desalination is economically advantageous and is widely used in the Middle East.

In December 2015 the "Global Clean Water Desalination Alliance - H2O minus CO2" initiative was launched at the COP 21 climate talks in Paris, and called on its 17-nation membership to use clean energy to power new desalination plants. The call was part of the alliance's aim to tackle the water-energy nexus and climate change.

The largest desalination plant - the $3.8 billion Al-Jubail 2 in Saudi Arabia - has 948,000 m ³/day (346 GL/yr) MED-TVC capacity, plus 2745 MWe power generation using gas turbines. The Saudi Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) takes about 62% of output to supply Riyadh. China is building a 1 million m ³/d RO plant to supply Beijing. Two-thirds of the world capacity is processing seawater, and one-third uses brackish artesian water.

Desalination technologies

The two major types of desalination technologies used around the world can be broadly classified as either thermal processes, in which feedwater is boiled and the vapour condensed as pure water (distillate), or membrane desalination processes, in which feedwater is pumped through semi-permeable membranes to filter out the dissolved solids. The main thermal processes are multi-stage flash distillation (MSF), multi-effect distillation (MED) and vapour compression variants - thermal and mechanical (TVC, MVC). The main membrane process is reverse osmosis (RO).

More than three-quarters of the capacity is MSF and RO, but MED is increasing rapidly, according to the International Desalination Association.

The major technology in use and being built today is reverse osmosis (RO) driven by electric pumps which pressurise water and force it through a semi-permeable membrane against its osmotic pressure*. This accounted for 65% of 2016 world capacity, up from only 10% in 1999. With brackish water, RO is much more cost-effective, though MSF gives purer water than RO. RO relies on electricity to drive the actual process and requires clean (filtered) feedwater.

Hybrid thermal-membrane plants have a more flexible power-to-water ratio, efficient operation even with significant seasonal and daily fluctuations of the electricity and water demand, less primary energy consumption and an increase of plant efficiency, thus improving economics and reducing environmental impacts. MSF+RO or MED-TVC+RO hybrid plants exploit the best features of each technology for different quality products or a blended product.

Several thermal distillation processes capable of using waste heat from power generation are in use: Multi-stage flash (MSF) distillation process using steam, was earlier prominent. It works by flashing a portion of the water into steam in multiple stages of what are essentially countercurrent heat exchangers and it accounted for 23% of world capacity in 2012. It is more energy-intensive than MED, but it can cope with suspended solids and any degree of salinity. The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has designed a 600 MWt HTR called the GTHTR300 which produces 300 MWe and uses the waste heat in MSF desalination, the projected water cost being half that of using gas-fired CCGT.

An increasing number of plants use multiple-effect distillation (MED) with 8% world capacity in 2012, or multi-effect vapour compression (MVC or VCD) distillation or a combination of these, e.g. MED-TVC with thermal vapour compression. Multiple-effect distillation (MED) is the low temperature thermal process of obtaining fresh water by recovering the vapour of boiling seawater in a sequence of vessels (called effects), each maintained at a lower temperature than the last. Because the boiling point of water decreases as pressure decreases, the vapour boiled off in one vessel can be used to heat the next one, and only the first one (at the highest pressure) requires an external source of heat, such as that from the condenser circuit of a power plant. It is higher-cost than RO but can cope with any degree of salinity. For Kuwait, MED was selected because no pre-treatment of feedwater was required, in an area with algal blooms and organic matter.

Membrane distillation (MD) is an emerging process which is thermally-driven.

Desalination is energy-intensive. Reverse osmosis needs up to 6 kWh of electricity per cubic metre of water (depending on both process and its original salt content), though the latest RO plants such as in Perth, Western Australia, use 3.5 kWh/m ³, or 4 kWh/m ³ including pumping for distribution. Hence 1 MWe continuous will produce about 4000 to 6000 m ³ per day from seawater. MSF and MED require heat at 70-130°C and use about 38 kWh/m ³ thermal input, plus 3.5 kWh/m ³ electrical for MSF and 1.5 kWh/m ³ for MED-TVC. ( IAEA 2015 quotes 100 kWh/m3 thermal input, plus 3.5 kWh/m3 electrical for MSF and 50 kWh/m ³ thermal input, plus 2.5 kWh/m3 electrical for MED.) A variety of low-temperature and waste heat sources may be used, including solar energy (especially for MED), so the above kilowatt-hour figures are not properly comparable. For brackish water and reclamation of municipal wastewater RO requires only about 1 kWh/m ³. The choice of process generally depends on the relative economic values of fresh water and particular fuels, and whether cogeneration is a possibility. Thermal processes are more capital-intensive.

Forward osmosis (FO) may be used in conjunction with a subsequent process for desalination. The FO draws water through a membrane from a feed solution into a more concentrated draw solution, which is then desalinated without the problems of fouling, such as often encountered with simple RO. FO plants operate in Gibraltar and Oman.

Desalination dependence

Malta gets two-thirds of its potable water from RO, and this takes 4% of its electricity supply.

The Kwinana desalination plant near Perth, Western Australia, has been running since early 2007 and produces about 140,000 m ³/day (45 GL/yr) of potable water, requiring 24 MWe of power for this, hence 576,000 kWh/day, or 4.1 kWh/m ³ overall, and about 3.7 kWh/m ³ across the membranes. The plant has pre-treatment, then 12 seawater RO trains with capacity of 160,000 m ³/day which feed six secondary trains producing 144,000 m ³/day of water with 50 mg/L total dissolved solids. The cost is estimated at A$ 1.20/m ³. Discharge flow is about 7% salt. Future WA desalination plants will have more sophisticated pre-treatment to increase efficiency. In August 2011 the state government decided to double the size of its new Southern Water Desal Plant at Binningup plant near Perth to 100 GL/yr, taking the cost to about $1.45 billion. Stage 1 of 50 GL/yr was within the A$ 955 million budget.

Nuclear desalination studies

Small and medium sized nuclear reactors are suitable for desalination, often with cogeneration of electricity using low-pressure steam from the turbine and hot seawater feed from the final cooling system. The main opportunities for nuclear plants have been identified as the 80-100,000 m³/day and 200-500,000 m³/day ranges. US Navy nuclear powered aircraft carriers reportedly desalinate 1500 m ³/d each for use onboard.

At the April 2010 Global Water Summit in Paris, the prospect of desalination plants being co-located with nuclear power plants was supported by leading international water experts.

As seawater desalination technologies are rapidly evolving and more countries are opting for dual-purpose integrated power plants ( i.e. cogeneration), the need for advanced technologies suitable for coupling to nuclear power plants and leading to more efficient and economic nuclear desalination systems is obvious. The IAEA Coordinated Research Program (CRP) New Technologies for Seawater Desalination using Nuclear Energy was organized in the framework of a Technical Working Group on Nuclear Desalination that was established in 2008. The CRP ran over 2009-2011 to review innovative technologies for seawater desalination which could be coupled to main types of existing nuclear power plant. The CRP focused on low temperature horizontal tube multi-effect distillation, heat recovery systems using heat pipe based heat exchangers, and zero brine discharge systems.

An IAEA preliminary feasibility study on nuclear desalination in Algeria was published in 2015, for Skikda on the Mediterranean coast, using cogeneration. The nuclear energy option was very competitive compared with fossil fuels.

Desalination: nuclear experience and plans

The feasibility of integrated nuclear desalination plants has been proven with over 150 reactor-years of experience, chiefly in Kazakhstan, India and Japan. Large-scale deployment of nuclear desalination on a commercial basis will depend primarily on economic factors. Indicative costs are US$ 70-90 cents per cubic metre, much the same as fossil-fuelled plants in the same areas.

One obvious strategy is to use power reactors which run at full capacity, but with all the electricity applied to meeting grid load when that is high and part of it to drive pumps for RO desalination when the grid demand is low.

The BN-350 fast reactor at Aktau, in Kazakhstan, successfully supplied up to 135 MWe of electric power while producing 80,000 m³/day of potable water over some 27 years to 1999, about 60% of its power being used for heat and desalination. The plant was designed as 1000 MWt but never operated at more than 750 MWt, but it established the feasibility and reliability of such cogeneration plants. (In fact, oil/gas boilers were used in conjunction with it, and total desalination capacity through ten MED units was 120,000 m³/day.)

In Japan, some ten desalination facilities linked to pressurised water reactors operating for electricity production yield some 14,000 m³/day of potable water, and over 100 reactor-years of experience have accrued. MSF was initially employed, but MED and RO have been found to be more efficient there. South Korea has some MED plants associated with PWRs. The water is used for the reactors' own cooling systems.

India has been engaged in desalination research since the 1970s. In 2002 a demonstration plant coupled to twin 170 MWe nuclear power reactors (PHWR) was set up at the Madras Atomic Power Station, Kalpakkam, in southeast India. This hybrid Nuclear Desalination Demonstration Project (NDDP) comprises a reverse osmosis (RO) unit with 1800 m ³/day capacity and a multi-stage flash (MSF) plant unit of 4500 m³/day costing about 25% more, plus a recently-added barge-mounted RO unit. This is the largest nuclear desalination plant based on hybrid MSF-RO technology using low-pressure steam and seawater from a nuclear power station. They incur a 4 MWe loss in power from the plant.

Since 2010 Russia's Rostov nuclear power plant at Volgodonsk has produced make-up water using MED, now at 9600 m ³/d. Other plants also use MED and RO for desalination.

Egypt's Nuclear Power Plant Authority plans a two-unit AES-2006 nuclear power plant with desalination facility at El-Dabaa, on the Mediterranean coast, 290 km west of Cairo. Atomstroyexport quotes the El Dabaa reactors as 3200 MWt, 1190 MWe gross for power generation only, using warm seawater for cooling. However, with desalination (MED + RO) taking 432 MWt from the secondary circuit, they would be 1050 MWe gross, 927 MWe net and each produce 170,000 m ³/d at a cost of less than $1/m ³.

In August 2017 a cooperation agreement between Saudi Technology Development Corporation and China Nuclear Engineering & Construction Group (CNEC) set up a partnership project for "developing desalination projects using high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactors."

A low temperature (LTE) nuclear desalination plant uses waste heat from the nuclear research reactor at Trombay has operated since about 2004 to supply make-up water in the reactor.

China General Nuclear Power (CGN) has commissioned a 10,080 m ³/day seawater desalination plant using waste heat to provide cooling water at its new Hongyanhe project at Dalian in the northeast Liaoning province.

Much relevant experience comes from nuclear plants in Russia, Eastern Europe and Canada where district heating is a by-product.

Large-scale deployment of nuclear desalination on a commercial basis will depend primarily on economic factors. The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is fostering research and collaboration on the issue. In the 1960s the US Atomic Energy Commission investigated using nuclear plants up to 10,000 MWt for desalination on the west coast.

In 2014 Rusatom Overseas said it was planning to promote thermal desalination plants using nuclear power on a BOO (build-own-operate) basis. The first meeting of the Rusatom Overseas International Expert Council on Desalination took place in September 2014 in Moscow.

In California, a county's Drought Task Force is teaming up with Diablo Canyon nuclear plant owner Pacific Gas and Electric with a view to using the site's 5700 m ³/day RO desalination plant to supply up to 3100 m ³/day surplus water for county residents.

In South Africa, due to acute water shortages in the region, Eskom announced in May 2017 that it would install a small desalination plant at its Koeberg nuclear power plant. It will produce water solely for the plant initially. Also, Eskom has agreed to support Cape Town authorities if they choose to progress plans to install a small-scale desalination unit for municipal use at the Koeberg site. It would produce 2,500 to 5,000 m ³/d, as a demonstration plant for a larger project.

Small nuclear reactors suitable for desalination

SMART: South Korea has developed a small nuclear reactor design for cogeneration of electricity and potable water. The 330 MWt SMART reactor (an integral PWR) has a long design life and needs refuelling only every 3 years. The main concept has the SMART reactor coupled to four MED units, each with thermal-vapour compressor (MED-TVC) and producing total 40,000 m ³/day, with 90 MWe.

CAREM: Argentina has designed an integral 100 MWt PWR suitable for cogeneration or desalination alone, and a prototype in being built next to Atucha. A larger version is envisaged, which may be built in Saudi Arabia.

NHR-200: China's INET has developed this, based on a 5 MW pilot plant.

Floating nuclear power plant (FNPP) from Russia, with two KLT-40S reactors derived from Russian icebreakers, or other designs for desalination. (If primarily for desalination the twin KLT-40 set-up is known as APVS-80.) ATETs-80 is a twin-reactor cogeneration unit using KLT-40 and may be floating or land-based, producing 85 MWe plus 120,000 m ³/day of potable water. The small ABV-6 reactor is 38 MW thermal, and a pair mounted on a 97-metre barge is known as Volnolom floating NPP, producing 12 MWe plus 40,000 m ³/day of potable water by reverse osmosis. A larger concept has two VBER-300 reactors in the central pontoon of a 170 m long barge, with ancillary equipment on two side pontoons, the whole vessel being 49,000 dwt. The plant is designed to be overhauled every 20 years and have a service life of 60 years. Another design, PAES-150, has a single VBER-300 unit on a 25,000 dwt catamaran barge.

See also: Small Nuclear Power Reactors paper.

Wastewater and groundwater treatment for irrigation

In the Middle East, a major requirement is for irrigation water for crops and landscapes. This need not be potable quality, but must be treated and with reasonably low dissolved solids.

In Oman, the 76,000 m ³/day first stage of a submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) desalination plant was opened in 2011. Eventual plant capacity will be 220,000 m ³/day. This is a low-cost wastewater treatment plant using both physical and biological processes and which produces effluent of high-enough quality for some domestic uses or reinjection into aquifers.

In Australia AGL plans to install a 2000 m ³/d RO desal plant to treat water from fracking in its Gloucester coal seam gas project. This will be used for irrigation, rather than being potable quality. Also in Australia the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has found that the addition of nutrients could make desalinated water more financially attractive to farmers, who normally pay 20 cents/kilolitre for irrigation water, whereas most desal groundwater costs more than A$1/kL.

New desalination projects

Algeria has undertaken a study on nuclear power generation and desalination using RO and MED. The 500,000 m ³/d Magtaa seawater RO desal plant at Oran costing $495 million was commissioned in November 2014, following the 120,000 m ³/d Fouka seawater RO desal plant at Tipaza near Algiers in 2011, costing $185 million. The country is also considering MSF desalination for two new plants in addition to the 91,000 m ³/d Arzew MSF plant now operating. Total capacity is 2.3 million m ³/d.

Argentina: A 3000 m ³/day seawater RO plant is being built at Puerto Deseado, Santa Cruz, about 1800 km south of Buenos Aries.

Australia: Six major seawater RO plants were commissioned at a cost of A$ 12 billion between 2006 and 2012. However, the Kurnell plant near Sydney is not used but costs some A$500,000 per day on care and maintenance.

In Victoria, a 440,000 m ³/day (150 GL/yr) RO desalination plant near Wonthaggi built by Degremont was commissioned in 2012 to supply Melbourne. It claims to use 90 to 120 MWe of renewable energy, and is expandable to 200 GL/yr. However, it has never been used since 2012 completion and remained on standby to 2017. Melbourne Water's A$ 18 billion in repayments due over 27 years from 2015 is proposed to be spread over 60 years. The A$ 607 million pa maintenance cost is billed to customers. The state government in 2016 ordered 50 GL of water costing A$ 27 million (over the maintenance figure) by mid-2017, and then a further 15 GL before the plant returned to standby.

Adelaide's 100,000 m ³/d (36 GL/yr) plant started operation in 2011, with plans to expand it to 100 GL/yr. A 200-280,000 m ³/d desalination plant to serve the expanded Olympic Dam mine in South Australia has environmental approval but now may not proceed.

has two RO seawater desal plants, a 123,000 m ³/day (45 GL/yr) one (costing A$ 387 million) completed in 2006 powered by a wind farm, and a 100 GL/yr one powered by 65 MWe of dedicated renewable energy, which together provide half the city's needs. Following extensive trials, the city plans a groundwater replenishment scheme from treated wastewater which is expected to be half the cost and use half the energy of seawater desalination. It will include a new Advanced Water Recycling Plant and provide 7 GL/yr from 2016 and 28 GL/yr eventually about 2022.

Chile: Main focus is on Antofagasta region in the north, and Atacama region immediately south of it. Both extend from the coast inland to the border. The Atacama Desert is in both regions.

Several mining projects in the high-altitude Atacama desert of northern Chile rely on seawater desalination at the coast to supply their water. In November 2015 the Chilean state copper commission Cochilco said that desalination will provide half of the water demand for the country's copper mines by 2026 - 924,000 m ³/day. There are 16 mining-related desalination projects worth US$10 billion planned or under construction in the country, and nine are already operating.

BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have built a $3.43 billion, 220,000 m ³/day (79 GL/yr) RO seawater desalination plant with twin 1.07 m diameter pipes and pumps for their Escondida copper mine in the Atacama Desert in Antofagasta Region. Seawater is pumped 170 km inland to a reservoir near the mine, 3200 m above sea level and 185 km inland. It requires over 1000 MWe from the grid for desalination alone and will be commissioned in March 2017. Doosan built the plant at Caleta Coloso under Bechtel supervision.

BHP's 2017 commitment to a $2.5 billion expansion of its Spence copper mine involves an $800 million desalination plant at Mejillones, 60 km north of Antofagasta. It will be built by Mitsui and Grupo Cobra.

Chilean state copper company Codelco is seeking a BOOT (build-own-operate-transfer) agreement to build a 54,000 m ³/day plant expandable to 145,000 m ³/day for its Chuquicamata, Radomiro Tomic, Ministro Hales, and Gabriela Mistra mines - inland in the Antofagasta region. The $1.2 billion project includes a 160 km pipeline and pumping system.

A 104,000 m ³/day seawater RO plant is planned to serve the districts of Caldera, Chañaral, Copiapó, and Tierra Amarilla, in the northern half of Atacama region, costing $250 million. State-owned utility Econssa awarded an initial contract to a consortium of Spain's GS Inima and Claro Vicuna Valenzuela of Chile in October 2017, with planned operation of first phase in 2020.

Energias y Aguas del Pacifico (ENAPAC) is a proposed solar-powered 126,000 m ³/day seawater RO desalination plant and water transport project which aims to support expansion of several mining operations in the Atacama region. Five pumping stations on twin 1.4 m diameter pies will take the water 72 km to a reservoir at Copiapo, 700 m above sea level. The RO process itself will require 3.5 kWh/m ³, including pre and post treatment, and about the same again to deliver the water inland. The whole project will be powered about 80% by a 100 MWe solar PV plant, as well as off-peak grid power.

China built 112 seawater desalination plants in 2014, with total output of 927,000 m ³/day, according to the State Oceanic Administration.

A 50,000 m ³/day Aqualyng plant was completed in October 2011 at Caofeidian on Bohai Bay in Hebei province, and a second stage doubled this in 2012. The Hong Kong based Beijing Enterprises Water Group ( BEWG) with Aqualyng is building a 1 million m ³/day RO plant at Caofeidian for CNY 7 billion to supply Beijing through a 270 km pipeline by 2019, and a 3 million m ³/d plant is planned to expand this to supply the capital, providing about one-third of its needs. The pipeline, itself a major part of the project, will cost about CNY 10 billion, and supply desalinated water at CNY 8/m ³ ($1.28/m ³).

In March 2013 the National Development and Reform Commission announced new plans for seawater desalination, including for the cities of Shenzhen and Zhoushan, Luxixiang Island in Zhejiang Province, Binhai New Area in Tianjin, Bohai New Area in Hebei, and several industrial parks and companies. The cost is likely to be some CNY 21 billion ($3.35 billion). China aimed to produce 2.2 million m ³/day of desalinated water by 2015, more than three times the 2011 level, but only reached 1.18 million in 2016. More than half of the freshwater channelled to islands and more than 15% of water delivered to coastal factories would come from the sea by 2015, according to the plan.

The Luo Fang Wastewater Treatment Plant in Shenzhen is to be equipped with membrane bioreactor technology from GE Water & Process Technologies, adding 150,000 m ³/d and taking capacity to 400,000 m ³/d.

A 300,000 m ³/d seawater desal plant at Tianjin is under construction and will be the first zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) plant in the world. It is due to supply petrochemical plants from 2017.

Egypt's Nuclear Power Plant Authority plans a two-unit AES-2006 nuclear power plant with desalination facility at El-Dabaa, on the Mediterranean coast, 290 km west of Cairo. See section above.

The former largest desalination plant, 24,000 m ³/day RO, at Marsa Matrouh in the northwest has pressure exchanger (PX) energy-recovery devices by Energy Recovery Inc of California.

FCC Aqualia and Orascom in 2017 won a $320 million contract to build and operate the 1.6 million m ³/d Abu Rawash wastewater reuse plant for Cairo, to produce potable water. It is financed by the African Development Bank.

Ghana: Abengoa has built a 60,000 m ³/day seawater RO plant at Nungua to supply Accra. The $125 million contract covers operation and maintenance for 25 years.

In India, further plants delivering 45,000 m ³ per day are envisaged, using both MSF and RO desalination technology, and building on the extensive experience outlined above. For Chennai, the 100,000 m³/d Minjur RO seawater desalination plant was commissioned in 2010, the 100,000 m ³/d Nemmeli RO seawater desalination plant was commissioned in 2013, and a 150,000 m ³/day expansion is planned. A 200,000 m ³/day plant is planned for Pattipulam nearby, with potential for doubling in size, and also serving Chennai. Also in Tamil Nadu two 60,000 m ³/day seawater RO plants are being built at Kuthiraimozhi in Ramanathapuram and Alanthalai in the port city of Tuticorin to supply potable water.

In Karnataka four new desalination plants are planned for a satellite city to Bengaluru, comprising a $380 million plant at Mangaluru, a $110 million plant at Udupi, one of $23 million at Kundapura, and at Saligrama, a $12 million plant. IDE Technology and Vagas are likely to build them.

Indonesia: South Korea investigated the feasibility of building a SMART nuclear reactor with cogeneration unit employing MSF desalination technology for Madura Island, and later studies have been on larger-scale PWR cogeneration by Batan.

Iran: A 200,000 m³/day MSF desalination plant was designed for operation with the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran in 1977, but initially lapsed due to prolonged construction delays. It is being completed by AEOI subsequently.

In June 2016 Doosan signed a $186 milllion agreement to build a 200,000 m ³/d seawater RO plant at Bandar Abbas.

Israel has four desal plants including the 627,000 m ³/day seawater RO plant at Soreq. It plans further capacity, including purchase of about 35-40 GL/yr from a planned plant at Aqaba jointly run with Jordan.

Kenya plans a 100,000 m ³/day desalination plant near Mombasa.

Libya: in mid 2007 a memorandum of understanding was signed with France related to building a mid-sized nuclear plant for seawater desalination. Areva TA would supply this. Libya is also considering adapting the Tajoura research reactor for a nuclear desalination demonstration plant with a hybrid MED-RO system.

Mexico has a 21,000 m ³/day El Salitral plant in operation from the end of 2013, and has begun construction of a 22,000 m ³/d plant at San Quintin in Baja California, and another similar one at Ensenada, both using public-private partnerships. A 379,000 m ³/day seawater RO desalination plant is contracted at Rosarito Beach, in Baja California near the US border, with 189,500 m ³/day as phase 1 from 2019, and phase 2 by 2024, which would make it the largest desalination plant in the Western hemisphere. Expected cost including 37 years' operation and maintenance is $490 million, offset by $56 million annual revenue. Ownership would transfer to the state in the late 2050s. It would serve both Mexico and California (Otay Water District). However it is now in doubt due to political and economic changes, and will require a tariff increase to proceed.

Morocco has completed a pre-project study with China, at Tan-Tan on the Atlantic coast, using a 10 MWt heating reactor which produces 8000 m ³/day of potable water by distillation (MED). The government had plans for building an initial nuclear power plant in 2016-17 at Sidi Boulbra, and Atomstroyexport was assisting with feasibility studies for this.

Oman relies on large-scale desalination for 76% of its water (20% is from wells). It has had a 128,000 m ³/d plant at Sur since 2009. It commissioned a 45,460 m ³/d seawater RO plant at Barka in November 2013 as a BOO independent water project (IWP), expanding an existing facility to 136,000 m ³/d. Barka 2 will add 120,000 m ³/d. Another BOO project is the 191,000 m ³/d Muscat RO plant with commercial operation from February 2016, replacing the old Ghubrah plant serving the city. The Salalah plant was opened in May 2013 - a 69,000 m ³/d seawater desal plant with 445 MWe gas-fired generation. Another seawater RO plant at Sohar is planned to produce 250,000 m ³/d, on top of 150,000 m ³/d since 2007. Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) awarded a BOO contract to Hyflux for a 200,000 m ³/day IWP at Qurayyat, to be operating by May 2017. The 225,000 m ³/d Suwaiq IWP is planned and will bring supplies to over 1.2 million m ³/d. Contracts for Salalah III were expected in 2016, followed by Salalah IV of 100,000 m ³/d.

Qatar has been considering nuclear power and desalination for its needs, and water demand reached about 1.3 million m ³/day in 2010. The Ras Abu Fontas A2 144,000 m ³/d MSF seawater desalination plant built by Mitsubishi Corporation for $504 million was commissioned in 2015. The $467 million Ras Abu Fontas A3 project - with a 164,000 m ³/d RO plant also built by Mitsubishi is due to operate from March 2017 as the country's first large RO plant. In May 2015 Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (QEWC, Kahramaa) selected a Japanese consortium of Mitsubishi Corporation and Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), named K1 Energy, to build an electricity and water plant comprising a 620,000 m ³/d desalination facility and a 2.4 GW gas-fired power station at Umm Al Houl, 20km south of Doha, to come online in 2018.

Russia: A new 10,000 m ³/d seawater RO plant is being built offshore near Vladivostok, for commissioning over 2011-12. It is designed for severe climatic conditions.

Saudi Arabia's Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) increased its desalinated water output in 2014 by 10%, to more than 1.1 billion cubic metres. In 2016 the government said it would sell SWCC's entire portfolio of 29 desalination plants with capacity of 4.6 million m ³/day and 7305 MWe on the east and west coasts. It would then build seven new projects totalling 2.6 million m ³/day through public-private partnerships by 2020. The largest of these (million m ³/d) are Jubail - 1.17, Rabigh 3 - 0.6, Yanbu - 0.45 and Shuqaiq - 0.38.

A 600,000 m ³/day RO plant is planned at Rabigh in the west to serve Mecca, with potential for double this capacity, and developers for unit 3 are being sought.

In April 2017 Doosan was awarded a $422 million EPC contract by the SWCC for a 400,000 m ³/d RO plant at Shuaibah/Shoaiba on the Red Sea coast south of Jeddah. Also in April 2017 Abengoa was contracted to build a 250,000 m ³/d RO plant at Shoaiba III, 90 km south of Jeddah for $257 million. This adds to 150,000 m ³/d of existing RO capacity and 850,000 m ³/d of MSF capacity there, and will make Shuaibah/Shoaiba 3 into the world's largest desalination complex.

The first of three phases of the King Abdullah Solar water initiative was operating by 2014. Phase 1 involved construction of two solar plants to generate 10 MWe of power for a 30,000 m ³/d reverse-osmosis (RO) desalination plant at Al Khafji, near the Kuwait border. Phase 2 involves construction of a 300,000 m ³/d desalination plant over three years. The third phase aims to implement the solar water initiative throughout Saudi Arabia, with the eventual target of seeing all the country's desalination plants powered by solar energy by 2020. One of the main objectives of this initiative under King Abdullah City for Science & Technology (KACST) is to desalinate seawater at a cost of less than Riyal 1.5/m ³ (US$ 0.40/m ³) compared with the current cost of thermal desalination, which KACST says is in the range Riyal 2.0-5.5/m ³ (US$ 0.53-1.47/m ³), and desalination by RO, which is Riyal 2.5-5.5/m ³ (US$ 0.67-1.47/m ³) for a desalination plant producing 30,000 m ³/d.

Saudi Arabia's General Establishment for Water Desalination (GEWD) is, over the four years to 2019, implementing new projects with a total production capacity of up to 2.5 million m³/d in the Makkah region and the eastern province.

Singapore's water agency PUB in 2005 commissioned a large RO seawater desalination plant supplying 136,000 m ³/day - 10% of needs, at 49 cents US per cubic metre, and in 2013 commissioned the 318,500 m ³/d Tuaspring RO plant as the second desal plant on a BOO basis, costing US$ 700 million, to provide water at US 36 ¢/m ³. A Chinese 228,000 m ³/d RO plant at Changi, built by an 80% subsidiary of Beijing Enterprises Water Group on a BOO basis for 25 years at a first-year price of SGD 0.276/m ³ (US$ 0.22), opened in January 2017. A fourth desalination plant, the new Marina East 137,000 m ³/d plant using RO and other membrane technology is being built by Keppel, and will draw on both seawater and reservoirs to supply water at a first-year price of SGD 1/m ³.

South Africa: Veolia is building a 1700 m ³/d seawater desalination plant at Lamberts Bay, Cederberg municipality, upgradable to5000 m3/d. This will be the seventh plant along the west and south Cape coasts installed by Veolia. A 450,000 m3/d plant costing $1.23 billion is planned for Koeberg, near Cape Town.

Spain is building 20 RO plants in the southeast to supply over 1% of the country's water. Spain has 40 years of desalination experience in the Canary Islands, where some 1.1 million m ³/day is provided.

Tunisia is looking at the feasibility of a cogeneration (electricity-desalination) plant in the southeast of the country, treating slightly saline groundwater. It plans a tender for a 150,000 m ³/day plant at Sfax.

The UAE uses a lot of MSF capacity compared with others. It is planning a 68,000 m ³/d plant at Ras Al Kaimah. Sembcorp is expanding the Fujairah 1 136,000 m ³/d RO plant, to bring its UAE capacity to 591,000 m ³/d of which 307,000 is RO and 284,000 m ³/d is MSF. Also the Shuweihat S2 IPP and seawater desal plant at Al Ruwais started full operation in 2011 and provides 1510 MWe and 454,000 m ³/d by MSF. The Fujairah 2 plant is hybrid SWRO-MED and produces 454,600 m ³/d. The Taweelah A1 cogeneration plant produces 1430 MWe and 385,000 m ³/day and Umm Al Nar produces 394,000 m ³/day. The 91,000 m ³/d Al Hamriya RO desal plant with 400 MWe power station opened in June 2014 to supply Sharjah near Dubai, as part of a 636,000 m ³/d and 2500 MWe complex. The 136,400 m ³/d Al Zawra seawater desal plant is planned at Ajman. GdF Suez has a 25-year power and water supply agreement with Abu Dhabi for the Mirfa project, including a new 136,380 m ³/d RO plant and 1100 MWe power plant, costing $1.5 billion, alongside three existing 34,095 m ³/d MSF units and a power plant.

In the UK, a 150,000 m ³/day RO plant is proposed for the lower Thames estuary, utilising brackish water.

A $1 billion, 200,000 m ³/day salt water desal plant at Carlsbad, California, opened in 2015. It will require about 40 MWe in full operation and can provide 10% of the San Diego county's potable water. San Diego has ordered a 415,000 m ³/day RO wastewater treatment plant costing $3.5 billion. It is expected to meet one-third of the city's daily drinking water requirement by 2035, making it the second largest potable reuse plant in the USA.

Most or all these have requested technical assistance from IAEA under its technical cooperation project on nuclear power and desalination. A coordinated IAEA research project initiated in 1998 reviewed reactor designs intended for coupling with desalination systems as well as advanced desalination technologies. This programme, involving more than 20 countries, is expected to enable further cost reductions of nuclear desalination.

Other CO2-free desalination

Renewable energy sources are able to be used for desalination more readily than for most electricity supply, since the product can be stored on any scale, unlike electricity. Also electricity can be borrowed from the grid and repaid when the wind is blowing or the sun shining. A 45 GL/yr RO plant at Perth, Western Australia is powered by electricity ostensibly from a wind farm. A new 100 GL/yr RO plant is powered by 65 MWe of dedicated renewable energy (10 MWe solar PV, 55 MWe wind).

Main Sources:
IAEA 1997, Nuclear Desalination of Sea Water, proceedings of 1997 Symposium.
IAEA 1998, Nuclear heat applications: design aspects and operating experience, IAEA-TECDOC-1056.
Konishi & Misra, Freshwater from the Seas, IAEA Bulletin 43, 2; 2001.
IAEA Nuclear Desalination, paper on web.
International J of Nuclear Desalination, 2003, vol 1, 1.
UN World Water Development Report 2003.
Seneviratne, G 2007, Research projects show nuclear desalination economical, Nuclear News April 2007.
Khamis, I, 2010, Nuclear Desalination
New Technologies for Seawater Desalination Using Nuclear Energy, TecDoc 1753, International Atomic Energy Agency (January 2015)
ANS Nuclear Café, Nuclear Agro-Industrial Parks (20 January 2016)

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Potable water is in short supply in many parts of the world. Lack of it is set to become a constraint on development in some areas. Nuclear energy is already being used for desalination, and has the potential for much greater use. Nuclear desalination is generally very cost-competitive with using fossil fuels.

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Nuclear desalination uses the excess heat from a nuclear power plant to evaporate sea water and to condense the pure water. Writing in the appropriately named International Journal of Nuclear Desalination, a team from India and Italy argue that despite public concerns, the low energy costs and convenience of this latter process make it the preferred option.

A ready supply of fresh water is a human right, but access to safe drinking water is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve in many parts of the world. The problems of climate change and population growth are all leading to new pressures on water. Desalination of brackish and sea water by reverse osmosis is expensive and inefficient. Marco Rognoni of Saline Water Specialists, in Gallarate, Italy working with colleagues M.P. Ramaswamy and J. Justin Robert Paden in Tiruchirappalli, India, have calculated the cost balance and demonstrated that the benefits of nuclear evaporative desalination outweigh conventional reverse osmosis.

"The selection of the appropriate desalination technology between evaporation and reverse osmosis is grounded on several factors, including investment cost, maintenance cost, degree of availability, heaviness of the duty, and the required purity of the desalinated water," the team explains. "The main factor, however, is often the running cost of the plant, and specifically the cost of the consumed energy."

Energy input accounts for 35 to 45% of the total cost of producing desalinated water using reverse osmosis in which sea water is forced under pressure through a semi-permeable membrane, a filter, so that the ions that make it "salty" are left behind and purified water is formed on the other side of the membrane. However, energy costs are rising while environmental pressure on reducing greenhouse emissions requires alternative and sustainable energy sources for industrial processes.

Conventionally, evaporative desalination is considered to be even less efficient, purportedly requiring twice the energy. However, Rognoni and colleagues have recalculated the energies involved and suggest that not only is this a serious over-estimate. Calculations were previously based, not on the efficiency of the water purification process but as a loss of energy from steam turbines. They also point out that given the essentially free heat energy available as a by-product of electricity generation using nuclear power, evaporative desalination should be the best approach to generating fresh water.

Journal Reference:

M. Rognoni, M.P. Ramaswamy, J. Justin Robert Paden. Energy cost for desalination evaporation versus reverse osmosis. International Journal of Nuclear Desalination, 2011; 4 (3): 277-284

Cite This Page:

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nuclear energy; nature of water; energy technology; water; energy and the environment; sustainability; resource shortage; energy issues; environmental policies

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Nuclear desalination: Fresh water from waste heat of power plants

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Nuclear desalination uses the excess heat from a nuclear power plant to evaporate sea water and to condense the pure water. A research team from India and Italy argues that despite public concerns, the low energy costs and convenience of this latter process make it the preferred option.