Nuclear-Powered Seawater Desalination: Economic Feasibility Study
ME 4315 Design Project. Team designed two low-temperature desalination systems (MED and SLTD) coupled to a simplified PWR model based on Diablo Canyon Power Plant. MED outperformed SLTD on every metric (GOR, second-law efficiency, distillate production).
Cost Analysis & Economic Modeling Lead · Fall 2025
$0.62/m³LCOW25%Lower cost than RO
Contributions
LCOW Comparison Framework: Nuclear MED Waste-Heat vs. Seawater RO
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Description: Built a levelized cost of water (LCOW) model to compare a 15-effect MED system powered by nuclear condenser waste heat against a conventional seawater RO plant at equal capacity (~890,000 m³/day, 90% capacity factor). Defined five annualized cost components: amortized CAPEX, fixed O&M, variable O&M, electricity, and thermal energy. Derived the capital recovery factor from scratch using discounted cash flow (25-year lifetime, 7% real discount rate). MED CAPEX assumed at $800M (~$900/m³/day), RO at $1,200/m³/day. MED electricity at 1.5 kWh/m³ vs RO at 3.5 kWh/m³, with MED thermal input (~120 kWhth/m³) treated as free waste heat. Result: MED achieves $0.62/m³ vs RO at $0.82/m³. The 25% cost advantage is driven almost entirely by substituting free nuclear waste heat for electricity.
Requirement: Compare economic viability of MED + nuclear waste heat vs conventional RO at equal capacity and capacity factor
Result: MED LCOW of $0.62/m³ vs RO LCOW of $0.82/m³, 25% cost advantage driven by free waste heat substituting for electricity
Parametric Cost Sensitivity Across MED Operating Conditions
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Description: Tested the robustness of the MED economic advantage by varying cooling water temperature from 2°C to 20°C, which changes distillate flow rate and plant capacity. For each operating point, rescaled MED CAPEX using a standard 0.7 cost-to-capacity exponent, then recomputed all five cost components under the same base-case assumptions. LCOW stays within a narrow band of $0.62-0.65/m³ across the full range. The coldest case (2°C) has the highest LCOW due to reduced capacity raising specific CAPEX, while the warmest case (20°C) has the lowest. The conclusion is that the MED cost advantage over RO is not sensitive to moderate variations in operating conditions or plant scale.
Requirement: Verify that the MED economic advantage holds across a range of realistic deployment conditions
Result: LCOW stays within $0.62-0.65/m³ across the full parametric range, confirming the technology comparison is robust