Posted on 12/27/2007 7:55:08 PM PST by grundle
State governments looking for ways to cope with severe drought in the Southeast should consider using nuclear power to desalinate seawater. This is a safe and proven technology that the U.S. Navy has been using for more than a half-century to provide drinking water for the crews of its nuclear-powered submarines.
Until a few years ago, the water debate here in Georgia was conducted in an almost surreal atmosphere. We appeared to have sufficient supplies of water to meet our needs, and most of us seemed to feel that this state of affairs would continue indefinitely. By definition, miracles do not often happen, and it is not likely that the water problem will be solved by a miracle. The solution, if there is one, will be found in the development of comprehensive water use plans, strict conservation and technology. No one of these alone will solve our water problems, but all of them together have a good chance of succeeding.
The discrepancy between the need for water and its availability is seen not only in the difficulty of allocating scarce resources for households, industries, farms, electricity production, wildlife and recreation but also sharing common supplies with neighboring states. As our water resources diminish, it is becoming clear that unless we can come up with substitute sources of water, we will simply have less water and a lower standard of living.
Experience shows that nuclear reactors can be used to heat seawater in a process known as "reverse osmosis" to produce large amounts of potable water. The process is already in use in a number of places around the world, from India to Japan and Russia. Eight nuclear reactors coupled to desalination plants are operating in Japan alone.
Seawater desalination raises absolutely no technical problems. The technologies have been used for many years. But most of the world's 12,500 desalination plants use fossil fuels to provide the large amounts of energy needed to desalinate seawater, and that poses economic problems due to the rising cost of oil and natural gas and environmental problems from greenhouse-gas emissions. Nuclear power, on the other hand, is now economically competitive with fossil fuels and produces no greenhouse gases. It is a viable alternative for desalination.
Nuclear reactors could serve a dual purpose, providing both power and fresh water, as they do in nuclear submarines. If anchored a few miles offshore, nuclear desalination plants could be a source of large amounts of potable water transported by pipelines hundreds of miles inland to serve the needs of communities and industries.
A study completed by Argonne National Laboratory determined that dual-purpose reactors — called cogeneration plants — "could offer a major portion" of the additional water and electricity that municipalities and industry will need for maintaining sustainable development and growth in the years ahead. The study determined that nuclear power would be less costly as a heat source for water desalination than fossil-fuel plants using oil or natural gas. But it said that costs could vary according to the type of reactor used and its specific location, among other factors, requiring further economic analysis.
The next big step needs to be taken by the Department of Energy. It should propose construction of a demonstration reactor for desalination.
Production of large amounts of fresh water would alleviate water shortages in the decades ahead with attendant benefits to homeowners and businesses as well as the environment. Now is the time for the Department of Energy, in concert with Georgia and other states, to determine how best to proceed with nuclear desalination.
Ping!
The greenies will fight this just like they fight the nuking of food. They are a sorry lot.
I can’t find a reason why the greenies and peaceniks will fight it.
“Experience shows that nuclear reactors can be used to heat seawater in a process known as “reverse osmosis” to produce large amounts of potable water.”
Reverse osmosis involves pressure and membranes. The process the author seems to be describing would be “multistage flash distillation”.
Because they are NUTS!
It puts too much salt back into the ocean. Honestly, that’s what they say. Harms the aquatic life. Not that I believe that.
I wish you were right but I am sure the environmentalist will have pictures of baby seals indicating they will die of dehydration if we desalinize seawater.
I would even bet AlGore will feature a beached whale in his movie about it.
I wish I was being sarcastic......
A cameo appearance?
lol
now that you mention it........
Reverse osmosis is driven by electric current not heat. Other then that quibble the article is correct, nuclear power is definitely the way to go. It can generate steam to power turbine driven generators and supply process heat to distill seawater.
Reverse osmosis units are available in sizes suitable for a single dwelling and can turn any water source into portable water. I would think that distillation would be more be more efficient then RO for a municipal scale water supply.
Regards,
GtG
With federal government leadership? Ha! If you want leadership then look to the free market. The government would only get in the way.
You’ve never heard of DSRO or Ovation, have you?
It is called a Nimitz class aircraft carrier. If you have electricity or if you have steam then you can desalinate water. No more research is needed.
I’ve suggested this for years.
dagnabit!~
Greenies will say that it will make the oceans too salty, but at the present time they say global warming is diluting the oceans. This is a way to counter their arguments. Desalinization will counter balance the diluting of the ocean from Global warming(so the argument would go). Use their own arguments against them. If we had Republican leaders with a set of ba*** instead of bunch of castrated steers they would think of things like this to counter and push for what they should know is right.
Every enviro reason I have seen not to do this easily proven wrong or manageable.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/912586.html
http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/16977/
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-12/uof-ndt121604.php
There are many interesting things happening with this. I have also read about a new pump design that cut the required energy for desalination by 90%. If anyone can find a link to it please post it. Thanks.
I would hope that common sense would have broken out by now, but this *is* politics we're talkng about.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.