Fusion Engineering and Design 58–59 (2001) 1109–1115

Fusion power plant for water desalination and reuse

A.A. Borisov, A.V. Desjatov, I.M. Izvolsky, A.G. Serikov, V.P. Smirnov,Yu.N. Smirnov, G.E. Shatalov, S.V. Sheludjakov, N.N. Vasiliev *,

E.P. VelikhovRussian Research Center, Kurchato� Institute, Ploschad Kurchato�a 1, Moscow 123182, Russia

Abstract

Development of industry and agriculture demands a huge fresh water consumption. Exhaust of water sourcestogether with pollution arises a difficult problem of population, industry, and agriculture water supply. Request foradditional water supply in next 50 years is expected from industrial and agricultural sectors of many countries in theworld. The presented study of fusion power plant for water desalination and reuse is aimed to widen a range ofpossible fusion industrial applications. Fusion offers a safe, long-term source of energy with abundant resources andmajor environmental advantages. Thus fusion can provide an attractive energy option to society in the next century.Fusion power tokamak reactor based on RF DEMO-S project [Proc. ISFNT-5 (2000) in press; Conceptual study ofRF DEMO-S fusion reactor (2000)] was chosen as an energy source. A steady state operation mode is considered withthermal power of 4.0 GW. The reactor has to operate in steady-state plasma mode with high fraction of bootstrapcurrent. Average plant availability of �0.7 is required. A conventional type of water cooled blanket is the firstchoice, helium or lithium coolants are under consideration. Desalination plant includes two units: reverse osmosis anddistillation. Heat to electricity conversion schemes is optimized fresh water production and satisfy internal plantelectricity demand The plant freshwater capacity is �6 000 000 m3 per day. Fusion power plant of this capacity canprovide a region of a million populations with fresh water, heat and electricity. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. Allrights reserved.

Keywords: Fusion power plant; Water desalination; Fusion reactor

www.elsevier.com/locate/fusengdes

1. Rationale for demand of sea water desalination

The presented report has a goal to study apossibility to use power fusion reactor for a pur-pose of mineralized water desalination. Develop-

ment of industry and agriculture demands a hugewater consumption, which is 100 times higherthan consumption of all other raw materials. Ex-haust of water sources together with pollutionafter using arises a difficult problem of popula-tion, industry and agriculture water supply. In-crease for fresh water demand is expected in thecentury in different world countries and regions.Fresh water usage is a critical requirement forenvironment equilibrium.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +7-95-1967909; fax: +7-95-9430023.

E-mail address: vasiliev@nfi.kiae.ru (N.N. Vasiliev).

0920-3796/01/$ - see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

PII: S0920 -3796 (01 )00585 -3

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Only a small fraction of freshwater (less than1% of total freshwater, or 0.007% of the totalglobal water stock) that is available in rivers,lakes and reservoirs is readily accessible for directhuman use. Furthermore, the spatial and tempo-ral distribution of the freshwater stocks and flowsis hugely uneven [3].

Hydrologists estimate the average annual flowof all the world’s rivers to be about 41 000 km3

per year. Less than a third of this potential re-source can be used for human needs (Table 1).WHO has estimated that 1000 m3 per person peryear (at current average consumption of 100–200m3) is the benchmark level below which chronicwater scarcity is considered to impede develop-ment and harm human health.

As the present global population is about 5.8billion, a quantity of 5800 km3 of fresh watershould be required to satisfy human needs. Theworld population is expected to reach 10–12 bil-lion in 2050 so that very much larger water re-sources will be required. WHO have stated [3]that they believe that humanity is currently usingabout 50% of the available river flow (i.e. 6250

km3 per year). Humanity is likely to reach theextractable limit in no more than a fewgenerations.

Water supply problem is extremely essential inarid regions where fresh water resources are lim-ited or virtually nonexistent, but sea water, waterpollution wastes or mineralized water is in abun-dance. Water distillation is an only source indeserts and so it was widely developed in aridzones and especially in countries of Near Eastregion. Twenty-two countries are located in anarea of 14 million km2 with a population of 250millions. Water resources of the area are esti-mated as 170 km3 in comparison with water de-mand of 305 km3. About two-third of distillationunits are located in this area. As an exampledesalination units provide 73% of water demandin Saudi Arabia.

Without water desalination most regions ofNorth Africa, Middle Asia and some other re-gions will remain low populated.

Demand on water desalination and reuse is notlimited by arid regions only. Industry and agricul-ture growth will require it in many countries (seeTable 2) [4].

Today desalination plants are under designwith capacity of �400 000 m3 per day.

A unique experience was obtained at operationfast breeder nuclear reactor BN 350 nearShevchenko town in Kazachstan (Fig. 1). Electricenergy and fresh water producing plant showed areliability and safety of fresh water production bynuclear reactor.

2. Advantage of fusion power reactor for seawater desalination

Energy demand in the next century is predictedto increase. The stability of each country or re-gion requires availability of sufficient and reason-ably priced energy. Per capita energyconsumption in the various regions of the worldhas increased over time and is projected to con-tinue increasing.

While globally, there are significant resources offossil and fission fuels and substantial opportuni-ties for exploiting renewable energies, numerous

Table 1World water withdrawals and demands

41 000Average annual flow of all world’s riversto be about km3 per yearUsable flow of all world’s rivers, km3 per 12 000–13 000

year�6300The presently available river flow, km3

per year�3000Present global freshwater consumption

km3 per yearPresent requirement in fresh water to �6000

satisfy human needs (according WHOestimation), km3 per year

Population growth in XXI century 2–2.5 times12 000–15 000Requirement in fresh water in XXI

century to satisfy human needs, km3

per yearWater requirement for average industrial �200 or over

or agriculture product, tons per ton�10Worldwide desalination stations capacity,

km3 per yearOperating and planned desalination plant 0.03–0.06

capacity, km3 per yearEstimated fusion power plant desalination 1.5–1.7

capacity, km3 per year

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Fig. 1. Basic parameters of BN 350 reactor.

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Table 2Desalination Capacity (January 1996) and freshwater withdrawal (estimated year 2000) by some countries [2]

Industrial use(Estimated year 2000) per Domestic use Agricultural useTotal desalination capacity(1996) (m3 per day) (%)(%)capita withdrawal (m3/p (%)

per year)

786Saudi Arabia 95 006 194 1 90United States 2 799 000 1688 12 46 42United Arab 2 134 233 863 24 9 67

Emirates274 37Kuwait 21 284 327 60

Japan 637 900 718 17 33 50837 12Spain 26492 824 62916 6423 427 2Iran 92

324 476Iraq 1852 3 5 92Oman 450180 621 5 2 94

527 19116 140 62Russia 2090 378Israel 280 16 5 79

288 17South Africa 1179 531 725309 143 707 1Turkmenistan 98

31 200Uzbekistan 2320 4 2 9438 14 10Sahara 767002

Fig. 2. Thermal circuit of complex desalinating plant based on steam back-pressure turbine. (1) Steam generator; (2) Steamback-pressure turbine; (3) Electrical generator; (4) Front heat rejecter; (5) Multi-stage evaporating plant; (6) Reversed-osmosis plant.

countries and some of the developing areas are notwell endowed with the required resources. Restric-tions exist from a point of radiation safety andwaste disposal for using fission energy and burnfossil fuels with the carbon dioxide emissions maybe limited because of environmental impact as wellas because of diminishing resources to the end ofthe 21st century.

Fusion offers a safe, long-term source of energywith abundant resources and major environmentaladvantages. The basic fuels for fusion (deuteriumand lithium) are widely available. There would be

virtually no contributions to greenhouse gases, andwaste management of fusion reactor materialscould not require transportation from the plantsite. Fusion power reactors exhibit passive safety.Even the most unlikely accident it would notrequire public evacuation. With successful demon-stration of key fusion technologies and furtheroptimization of the fusion power plant concept,fusion could have costs comparable with otherenergy sources for some applications. Thus fusioncan provide an attractive energy option to societyin the second part of the next century.

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Water desalination industry requires high en-ergy consumption and it could probably be lo-cated in populated areas with demand of electricaland thermal energy. It puts a requirement ofenvironmental safety for desalination plants.

It has to be mentioned that perspective for aspecific fusion power application depends stronglyfrom the total energy consumption structure andresources of a certain country or region. So astudy of possible fusion applications for individ-ual consumer is important to be used in techno-logical processes such as electrolysis processes,fresh water production etc. These applications donot require necessary fast increase of fusion plantnumbers and they would be more easily incorpo-rated in the existing energy consumption structureeven in the middle of the next century.

Usage a fusion power reactor for water desali-nation could have additional advantages. Fusionpower plant may be located in dense populatedarea and near big city. Fusion reactors can beused in regions where fission energy will be non-desirable for some reasons. No fissile materialsand actinides can be generated in fusion reactorand accordingly no possibility their leakage fromfusion reactor and its infrastructure (absence ofproliferation problem). Sea water desalination ismost economical when integrated with electricpower production because it is able to use lowtemperature heat rejected from power plant.

Up to now almost all conceptual design studiesof fusion reactors were aimed only to electricityproduction. They ignored other fusion energy ap-plications like high heat production for industrialpurposes, desalinated water production, combina-tion of electricity and heat production, hydrogenfuel production and others. It is a time to considerthese applications.

3. Major parameters of fusion power plant forsea water desalination

The principal scheme of the desalination fusionplant is shown in Fig. 2. It includes tokamakfusion power reactor with two desalination utili-ties based on evaporation and reverse osmosistechnologies. RF DEMO-S tokamak power reac-

Table 3Major parameters of fusion power plant for sea water desali-nation

General parameters(6–7) 106Plant freshwater capacity, m3 per day

Plant availability �0.750Plant lifetime, years8000–12 000Plant capital cost, $M (1997)

Plant operating costs, $M per year 200–400Estimated freshwater cost, $/m3 1–3Plant site area, m2 800 000–1 200 000

Fusion power reactor parameters3100Fusion power of fusion reactor,

MW(th)�4000Total thermal power, MW(th)

Gross electric power, MW(e) 940300–500Circulating electric power, MW(e)

Water cooled blanket280/320Inlet/outlet temperature, °C12–15Pressure, Mpa

He or Li cooled blanketInlet/outlet temperature, °C �300–�500

2–10Pressure, Mpa

Reactor site area, m2 500 000–700 000Total reactor buildings area, m2 250 000–300 000

6000–8000Fusion power reactor capital cost, $M

Parameters of sea water desalination unitSpecific thermal energy consumption 70–80

for sea water distillation, MJ/m3

1.5Specific electrical energy consumptionfor sea water distillation, kWh/m3

5.5Specific electrical energy consumptionfor sea water desalination reverseosmosis process, kWh/m3

Freshwater output in distillation cycle, �170 000m3/h

Freshwater output osmosis cycle, m3/h �100 000250 000–300 000Total freshwater output in combined

distillation and osmosis cycle, m3/hCapital cost of freshwater desalination 2000–4000

unit, $MOperating cost of freshwater 100–200

desalination unit, $M per year

tor [1,2] parameters were used in this study withan option of 16 T at the toroidal magnet coils.Major parameters of the desalination plant aresummarized in Table 3 including fusion reactorand desalination units parameters. An evaporat-ing water utility consume about 90% of energy inthermal form. In contrary, the reverse osmosis

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Table 4Desalination utilities parameters for inlet vapor temperature 300 °C option

Fresh water parameters, inlet/outletDesalination utility Power inlet/outlet, MW See water parameters, inlet/outletunits

Temperature, °C Flow rate,Flow rate, Pressure, MPa Temperature, oCPressure MPaThermal ElectricMl/hMl/h

– – – – – –Power generation: 4000/3157

– /928.5– – – ––4000/3157 –Steam turbine

– /942.6– – – – –14.3/– –Pumps –

0.1 21 –/159 –/0.1 –/25Distillation unit: 116/–3157/3157 318.9/–– – –78/80–Boiler 3157/3157 0.08318.9/318.9

–3157/3157 –/4.8 0.002 17/15– – –Evaporation stage

0.1/– 21/– –/94 0.1 25Reverse osmosis unit – 375/– 312.1/–

631/631 0.1 20/21 –/4.8 /0.002 15/203157/3157Cooling heat 13.85/–exchanger

0/0.1 20/20 – – –– 22/– 631/631Pump station of thefirst distillatedwater lift

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utility consume 100% energy in an electrical form.The analysis showed that an optimized freshwater production in fusion power plant has tocombined both desalination methods. In this casean equivalent electrical energy consumptionwould be equal to 3.3 kWh/m3. The study alsoshowed that a usage of steam back-pressureturbine is optimal in a combined desalinationscheme because of higher temperature of theturbine rejected water.

Full fresh water production of the fusiondesalination plant could reach 1–2×109 m3 peryear, and it can satisfy human needs of aboutmillion people.

Fusion reactor suppose to operate insteady-state plasma burn regime with availabilityof 0.7–0.8. Four gigawatts of thermal reactorpower is directed to steam generator for furtherelectricity production. About half of electricity isused for internal fusion plant demand, the otherpart is used in the reverse osmosis utility. Therejected turbine water of �100 °C comes tomulti-stage evaporating device. More detailedparameters of both desalination devices are shownin Table 4.

The major part of thermal energy used in thedesalination plant if generated in the fusionreactor blanket. Two blanket options wereconsidered (Table 3): ceramic breeder blanketwith water or helium coolants, and lithium self

cooled blanket. Details of the blanket design aredescribed in [4]. Parametric analysis showed that adifference in fresh water production is small forthe two blanket types. It can be explained by afact that decrease of electrical energyconsumption on reverse osmosis utility can becompensated by an increase of thermal energy inthe evaporation utility (Table 4).

4. Summary

The carried out study shows a potential appli-cation of fusion power reactor for fresh watersupply. More detailed analysis is desirable.

References

[1] G. Shatalov, I. Kirillov, Yu. Sokolov, Yu. Strebkov, N.Vasiliev, and RF Demo Team, Russian DEMO-S reactorwith continuous plasma burn, Proc. of ISFNT-5, to beprinted in Fusion Engineering and Design, 51–52 (2000)289–298.

[2] Conceptual study of RF DEMO-S fusion reactor, Preprintof RRC ‘Kurchatov Institute’, part 4, Moscow, 2000.

[3] Dr. Darwish Al Gobaisi, Emerging Role of Desalinationand the Continuity of Human Civilization, The Interna-tional Desalination & Water Reuse Quaterly, Vol. 9,May–June 1999.

[4] P.H. Gleick, The World’s Water 1998–1999, Island Press,Washington, DC, 1998.