Study of an incrementally loaded multistage flash desalination system for optimum use of sensible waste heat from nuclear power plant

Yan, X. ; Noguchi, Hiroki  ; Sato, Hiroyuki  ; Tachibana, Yukio ; Kunitomi, Kazuhiko ; Hino, Ryutaro

Existing nuclear desalination cogeneration incurs loss of nuclear plant power generation. Such loss is avoided with the plant design GTHTR300 proposed in the present study. The plant is based on a HTGR. Gas turbine is used to replace steam turbine as power generator. The gas turbine converts about a half of the reactor thermal power to electricity while rejecting the balance as sensible waste heat to be utilized in a MSF plant for desalination. A new MSF is proposed to efficiently match the sensible waste heat source. Although operating with a similar number of stages to traditional process, the new process is shown to produce 45% more water over the same temperature range.