Nuclear power and desalinization make sense . . . especially in light of the cost v benefits of the so-called California high-speed rail train.
The Chinese are using our own technology to do not only district heating but also desalination.
“As envisioned, the phased “Shandong Haiyang Nuclear Energy Heating Project” could provide 300–400 terajoules of heat per year and produce 30 million tonnes of fresh water. In addition to steam extraction for heating and desalination, SDNPC is also exploring a more “comprehensive utilization” of Haiyang that could include a large-scale 500-MWh heat storage system (via heating storage tanks) and hydrogen production by electrolysis. “
“The heating project alone could translate to an “annual savings of about 6.62 million tons of standard coal,”
That’s a lot of coal you don’t have to mine or shop in by rail or ship. Nuclear heat is essentially free below 40C you are using condenser level heat and it’s 60% of the rated thermal output. A 1000MW reactor dumps around 3000MW of condenser heat. Every Joule of that can be used to evaporate seawater or heat up a house or hot water. 50C heat takes only a fraction of a percentage off the electrical output of the low pressure turbine and now you can do adsorption cooling too or better yet seawater ice storage for district cooling which by default when that ice melts is fresh water, two birds one stone and the latent heat of freezing is a fraction of that of boiling or vaccine evaporation.