Economic assessment of 1000 MW(e) PWR power plant coupled to MSF, MED and RO desalination plants. Annex 3. Egypt

One of the important tasks of Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA) is how to explore the possibility of employing a nuclear seawater desalination plant in Egypt. The NPPA thus undertook the implementation of an economic feasibility study of an integrated nuclear desalination system for an assumed Egyptian site. This work presents a detailed economic analysis of a 1000 MWe PWR, coupled to seawater desalination processes, MSF, MED and RO, each producing 140 000 m3/day of fresh water. The results of the performed case study concluded that the water cost (at 8% discount rate) with the MSF plant is highest, 1.48 $/m3, compared to 0.89 and 0.65$/m3 with the MED and RO plants. The sensitivity analysis has shown that all sensitivity parameters influence the water production costs. The variation of the discount rate and water availability has the largest impact on the unit production cost. The results of the case study clearly indicate the economic interest of nuclear desalination systems for the Egyptian site. Also, the water transport system has been developed to evaluate the technical and economical assessment of the desalted water transport system. The program results indicated that the total cost ($/m3/km) of water transport depends on the discount rate, the energy price, water capacity and the elevation of the pipe from reference level. (author)