Gabriel Collins, “Small Modular Reactors for Nuclear Desalination and Cogeneration in the Permian Basin,” Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, May 7, 2025, https://doi.org/10.25613/M0CA-RR71.
“We need a Manhattan Project to deal with the produced water.”
— Kirk Edwards, former chairman of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, April 2025[1]
Nuclear energy can potentially supply baseload, carbon-free electricity and process heat to repurpose and utilize some of the Permian Basin’s roughly 25 million barrels per day of oilfield produced water.[2] Doing so would free up local natural gas supplies for other uses, create a new water resource, and potentially, help address increasingly significant challenges with induced seismicity related to injection disposal of produced water.
Furthermore, nuclear reactors’ substantial heat output is well-suited for thermal distillation — the most robust process for oilfield waters whose variable quality, including contamination with hydrocarbons and high salinity, can severely challenge reverse osmosis-based treatment systems.[3] If a modern Manhattan Project is needed to handle produced water, the core tools of the original Manhattan Project — nuclear reactors — could potentially be very well suited for the task.
This simple analysis aims to sketch out first cut techno-economic parameters of how nuclear-powered water treatment might look. Oilfield applications of distributed nuclear power would align well with new Texas policy that explicitly recommends using nuclear power to treat oilfield produced water.[4] Many small modular reactor designs could also likely physically fit onto pad sizes similar to what the water midstream industry already uses for recycling and treatment operations.
This analysis ultimately aims to drive additional conversations with parties including the Texas Produced Water Consortium, Abilene Christian University, Natura Resources, Oklo, NuScale, Blue Energy and many others who are focused on — or who could help address — various challenges invoked by oilfield water management, power, and nuclear energy issues.
View the full paper (PDF).
[1] Benoit Morenne, “The Oil Patch’s ‘Manhattan Project’: How to Fix Its Gargantuan Water Problem,” The Wall Street Journal, 21 April 2025, https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/the-oil-patchs-manhattan-project-how-to-fix-its-gargantuan-water-problem-aebda706.
[2] The qualifier “some” is used because a portion of reported produced water flows are pre-obligated for enhanced oil recovery waterflood projects.
[3] Khamis, Ibrahim. “Overview of Nuclear Desalination Technologies & Costs.” Presentation at the Nuclear Energy Agency Workshop on Nuclear Co-Generation, Paris, France, November 15, 2011. https://www.oecd-nea.org/ndd/workshops/nucogen/presentations/8_Khamis_Overview-nuclear-desalination.pdf.
[4] “Deploying a World-Renowned Advanced Nuclear Industry in Texas,” Texas Advanced Nuclear Reactor Working Group, November 2024, https://gov.texas.gov/uploads/files/press/TANRWG_Advanced_Nuclear_Report_v11.17.24c_.pdf.
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