Ken Silverstein EnergyBiz Insider Editor-in-Chief

Desalination technologies are advancing but remain cost prohibitive. A number of methods now exist that include solar power and fossil fuels to remove salts and other contaminates from seawater. But nuclear energy might be a more efficient method because it is eventually less costly to own and operate and it produces no carbon dioxide.

Only 0.5 percent of earth's water is directly suitable for human consumption. The rest is composed of saltwater or locked up in glaciers and icecaps. As the world's population grows, the increased water demand will have to come from someplace. The demand for drinking water grew six-fold in the 20th century and is expected to increase another 40 percent by 2025, according to the United Nations, making desalination of seawater or mineralized groundwater a necessity.

More than half the world's desalination plants are in the Middle East and North Africa. It's estimated that desalination plants worldwide today have a total capacity of 30 million cubic meters a day in more than 10,000 facilities -- and fossil fuels are the energy source used to complete the process.

The process is energy intensive -- highly polluting -- and expensive. That's why nuclear energy is getting a fresh look as the energy source that might fit best with this process. It's especially relevant given that the world's population is growing and henceforth the demand for potable water will expand along with it.

"I believe this is an idea we cannot afford to dismiss and certainly not on ideological grounds," says Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who told the local press there that desalination facilities ought to be built next to nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants are costly to build. If they are to become more economical, they should also be used to desalinate seawater.

The International Atomic Energy Association is participating with 20 nations to build desalination plants that are fueled by nuclear energy. It says that a 300-megawatt nuclear plant would be required to drive a desalination facility with a capacity of 1 million cubic meters of potable water a day. That's enough water to support a population of between 3 or 4 million people. That same population would require between 4,000 and 6,000 megawatts of installed capacity to meet its electricity needs.

Complex Questions

The only industrial-scale nuclear reactor that serves to desalinate and to provide electricity was built in 1973 by the former Soviet Union and is located in Kazakhstan. It operates at 520 megawatts to generate electricity and at 80 megawatts to produce 80,000 cubic meters per day of potable water. In Japan, 10 desalination plants that are linked to pressurized water reactors and operate also for electricity generation have produced -- in trials -- between 1,000 cubic meters and 3,000 cubic meters a day of potable water.

China is building a desalination plant that will also generate power. It's developing a 200 megawatt deep-water reactor to desalinate 3,000 tons of seawater each day while also supplying electricity in the winter months only. Similarly, India has a demonstration desalination project with the potential to ratchet up production by a factor of 10. It may also build one more in its southern region. Pakistan, South Korea and Argentina all have small nuclear desalination projects.

Parts of the United States, too, are dependent on desalination for potable drinking water. Tampa and El Paso, for example, have large desalination facilities. And, the idea is more urgent than ever here as the population is expected to rise by 13 percent over each of the next two decades while increasing numbers are moving to the Southwest and California where water is already in short supply and where desalination projects are planned.

That's why the Sandia National Laboratory has written a roadmap that would use desalination to increase the nation's water supply. "By 2020, desalination and water purification technologies will contribute significantly to ensuring a safe, sustainable, affordable, and adequate water supply for the United States." Cost, it adds, is the biggest obstacle to development, noting it is at least five times more expensive to purify seawater than it is to treat fresh water.

One of the overriding fears associated with using nuclear as the fuel source to desalinate seawater is that the technology could be used for illicit purposes. A handful of nations are looking into this type of technology that includes Algeria, Egypt and Libya. At the same time, Saudi Arabia, which spends about $4 billion a year on 30 desalination plants, may have to look at the nuclear option. Its population is growing, putting pressure on drinking water supplies. That necessitates that it build new desalination facilities -- some of which could possibly involve nuclear technology.

It's a complex dilemma that is shrouding the fact that about a billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water. That doesn't just absorb national wealth but it inhibits economic growth. Developing countries are therefore eager to see new technologies come to market that will give them greater access to cleaner water supplies. If nuclear plants can be used safely and effectively, then they must be given every consideration.

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