Review of nuclear electricity generation and desalination plants and evaluation of SMART application

KAERI are developing a new advanced integral reactor named SMART for dual application purpose of the electric power generation and seawater desalination. This report are describing the general desalting methods with its technology development and the coupling schemes between electricity generation system and desalting system. Though MSF takes the most part of currently operating seawater desalination plants, MED and RO has been preferred in the past decade. MED has a advantage over MSF with the view to investment costs and energy efficiency. The coupling between electricity generation system and desalination system can be realized by using one of back pressure cycle, extraction cycle, and multi-shaft cycle. New design and operating strategy has to be established for various environment and load conditions. To evaluate the candidate desalination systems of SMART and the coupling method of it with other secondary systems, the desalted water and electricity were calculated through the several options. The result shows that back pressure cycle is preferred at the high water/power ratio and extraction cycle at the low value. If energy efficiency are only considered, RO will be best choice. (author). 17 refs., 12 tabs., 31 figs