In 1998, the IAEA initiated a Coordinated Research Programme (CRP) on the ‘Optimization of the Coupling of Nuclear Reactors and Desalination Systems’ with the participation of institutes from nine Member States in order to share information, optimize resources and integrate related research and development in this area. The overall scope of the CRP was to encompass research and development projects focused on optimized coupling of nuclear and desalination systems in the following areas: nuclear reactor design intended for coupling with desalination systems; optimization of thermal coupling of nuclear steam supply systems and desalination systems; performance improvement of desalination systems for coupling. This publication explains nuclear desalination technologies: nuclear reactors (power co-generation, heating and research reactors) and desalination systems (distillation, reverse osmosis and hybrid system); the coupling of desalination and nuclear technologies; and it makes an analytical evaluation and experimental validation of nuclear desalination technologies.