A seawater desalination plant using a nuclear heating reactor (NHR) coupled with the multi-effect distillation (MED) process was developed by the Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, China. The seawater desalination plant was designed to supply potable water demand to some coastal location or island where both fresh water and energy sources are severely lacking. The NHR design possesses intrinsic and passive safety features, which was demonstrated by the NHR-5 experiences. The intermediate circuit and steam circuit were designed as the safety barriers between the NHR and MED desalination systems. With the power range of the heating reactor within 10 to 200 MWt, the desalination plant could provide 8,000 to 160,000 m(3)/d of potable water of appropriate quality. The design concept and parameters, safety features, and comparative investigation of coupling schemes are presented in the paper.