Economic Considerations of Nuclear Desalination in Korea
Man-Ki Lee, Seung-Su Kim · OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · 2006
The objective of this study is to assess the economics of SMART (System-integrated Modular Advanced Reactor) desalination plant in Korea through DEEP (Devaluation Economic Evaluation Program). SMART is mainly designed for the dual purpose of producing water and electricity with the total capacity of 100 MWe which 10 MWe is used for water production and the remains for the electric generation. SMART desalination plant using MED (Multi-Effect Distillation) process is in the stage of the commercial development and its cost information is also being accumulated. In this circumstances, the economic assessment of nuclear desalination by SMART and the effect of water(or electric) supply price to the regional economy is meaningful to the policy maker. This study is focused on the case study analysis about the economics of SMART desalination plant and the meanings of the case study result. This study is composed of two parts. One is prepared to survey the methodology regarding cost allocation between electricity and water in DEEP and the other is for the economic assessment of SMART. The cost allocation methods that have been proposed or used can be classified into two main groups, one is the cost prorating method and the other is the creditmore » method. The cost of an product item in the dual-purpose plant can be determined differently depending on the costing methods adopted. When it comes to applying credit method adopted in this thesis, the production cost of water depends on what kind of the power cost will be chosen in calculating the power credit. This study also analyses the changes of nuclear desalination economics according to the changes of the important factors such as fossil fuel price. I wish that this study can afford to give an insight to the policy maker about SMART desalination plant. (authors)« less