Transmuting the Arid: Fission‐Powered Visions—Unlocking Ghana’s Aquatic Destiny Through Nuclear Desalination

Water scarcity poses a mounting constraint on Ghana’s socioeconomic development, intensified by climate‐driven hydrological variability, rapid urbanization, and industrial expansion. This study presents a Ghana‐specific techno‐economic and policy‐integrated assessment of nuclear‐powered seawater desalination, moving beyond generic applications of existing tools. A 300 MWe small modular reactor (SMR) operating in cogeneration mode with reverse osmosis (RO) and multieffect distillation (MED) is analyzed using the IAEA Desalination Economic Evaluation Program (DEEP), calibrated to Ghanaian regulatory compliance costs, local labor indices, financing structures, coastal siting constraints, and water conveyance distances. The proposed configuration delivers approximately 120,000 m 3 /day of potable water, sufficient to serve over 1.2 million people, while diverting about 23% of reactor thermal output without compromising electricity generation. The levelized cost of water is estimated at USD 0.84–1.05/m 3 , with sensitivity analysis identifying discount rate and plant availability as dominant uncertainty drivers. Environmental assessment extends beyond CO 2 mitigation to include brine management, thermal plume dispersion, coastal ecosystem vulnerability, and potential radiological pathways under defense‐in‐depth design. Comparative analysis indicates that nuclear desalination provides superior cost stability and scalability for baseload urban water supply in Ghana when contrasted with solar‐driven desalination and advanced wastewater recycling.