Core Power Proposes Nuclear-Powered Desalination Plant Ships

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Thursday May 5, 2022

Nuclear reactor firm Core Power has proposed using a nuclear-powered ship as a mobile desalination plant.

The company has developed a ship design with an 80 MW molten salt reactor in a Panamax-sized hull that could provide up to 450,000 m3 of drinkable water per day, as well as providing electricity to the local grid where it is deployed.

The firm also proposed a smaller version with a 10 MW heat pipe reactor in a feeder-type hull producing up to 60,000 m3 of drinkable water per day.

These vessel designs could produce drinkable water at a cost of $0.7/m3, 23% less than current typical costs, the company said in a statement on its website.

"Floating desalination will allow these facilities to be flexible overcoming the low utilisation rates of many existing facilities, as well as allow a decrease in build times due to a greater use of modularised construction techniques in shipyards," the company said in the statement.

"Nuclear energy is the ideal power source for these floating facilities.

"It is truly zero-emissions while also being 100% dispatchable and capable of operating at a guaranteed cost throughout its lifetime."

Nuclear power is increasingly being considered as a means for parts of the shipping industry to eliminate their carbon emissions. The main obstacle to this technology being rolled out at scale will be political opposition, with large sections of the general public and regulators having concerns over the technology's safety record.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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