Core Power, UK Firm Develops Nuclear-Powered Desalination Ship Concept

Core Power, the UK firm developing atomic propulsion solutions, has unveiled a new business line for shipping, floating desalination plants.

Floating Desalination Facilities

While land-based desalination plants have been built all over the world including Australia, North Africa and Saudi Arabia the cost of construction, maintenance and provision of fuel for these facilities is expensive and they also use fossil fuels for power, Core Power pointed out in a new report issued today.

Concept Vessels

Using floating desalination facilities built on traditional ship hulls, powered by micro reactors, the concept vessels can provide both desalinated water and electrical power, Core Power suggested.

Self-propelled Vessels

These self-propelled vessels could produce potable water at a rate of between 60,000 and 450,000 cu m per day, matching the scale of existing land-based desalination facilities.

The ships would benefit from the efficiencies of shipyard construction, decreasing deployment time and cost while being flexible in their movement, meaning they would be able to quickly scale up and down dependent on need, Core Power argued.

Chairman and CEO or Core Power

“Of all the problems we face, the global freshwater emergency is going to be the most precarious. We will need long-term, sustainable, and flexible solutions to ensure we can provide potable water to where and when it is needed at a massive scale,” said Mikal Bøe, chairman and CEO of Core Power.

Mikal Bøe adds:

“Core Power floating nuclear-powered desalination facilities could provide fresh water to all littoral states, safely, sustainably and without emissions. The dramatic changes in weather patterns means that rapid deployment is essential, without the years of planning and construction needed to build land-based desalination plants,” added Bøe .

While conventional ship hulls offer the flexibility of deployment and easier transits between locations, floating structures can offer more resistance to adverse weather effects.

The Core Power water solution is designed based on a ship hull containing a floating nuclear reactor and reverse osmosis water desalination systems.

Core Power modelling considering changes in climate and growing population expects the global desalination demand to reach 266m cu m per day by 2050.