Unfortunately, while most of it is covered by the ocean, only a small fraction of the planet's water—about 2.5 percent—is fresh water, and by 2030, supply shortages for drinking water needs are projected to exceed trillions of cubic meters. Desalination plants remove salt from seawater and help provide the fresh water that humans need.

But desalination plants are one of company banner design the most expensive ways to generate drinking water because of the energy-intensive process of extracting large volumes of seawater and using high pressure to force the water through membranes. A possible radical solution is to install desalination equipment on floating boats. Powered by nuclear reactors, the boats can sail to drought-affected islands or coasts, bringing clean drinking water and electricity.

Mikal Bøe, president of UK-based Core Power, the company that designs the desalination plants, said: "The boats are constantly moving around to fill people's tanks." It may sound whimsical, but the U.S. Navy has used nuclear-powered ships to provide desalination services during disasters in the past, and Russia already has a nuclear-powered ship with nuclear energy used to power desalination equipment.