#desalting

[man-and-atom]

'Like a creeping mold that's spreading across the landscape': Separate dry areas around the world are merging into 'mega-drying' regions at

Unchecked groundwater extraction and climate change have dried continents significantly over the past 22 years, with 101 countries now losin

Continents have lost so much water since 2002 that they have surpassed ice sheets as the biggest contributor to global sea level rise, a new study reveals. Almost 70% of this loss is due to unchecked groundwater extraction, which removes water from deep aquifers and eventually transfers it to the ocean, researchers found. Together with rising rates of evaporation due to climate change, this has caused rapidly drying "hotspots" to merge into four "mega-drying" regions, the scientists said.

As we have many times remarked, the proportion of humans who live in cities is larger than ever, and most of the large cities are on the seacoast, where there is plenty water available if you have the energy to separate it from the salt. Nuclear power plants are ideally suited to provide desalted water, using distillation and heat from the bottom of the thermodynamic cycle for the “base load”, plus potentially reverse osmosis as a consumer of off–peak power.

This directly reduces the water used by cities. The power produced reduces the need to let water flow down through hydro dams, potentially making it available for other uses. The effects cascade up into the interior. All in all, it is deeply unfortunate that the Bolsa Island Project of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California did not go ahead in the 1960s, not only for the direct benefits to the Colorado river system, but also because it would have been a lead for the world to follow. As things are, we are still waiting for that first big nuclear desalting project.

[man-and-atom]

Nuclear energy contributing to electrification in the 1970s USSR, including high-tension pylons being erected by helicopter in Siberia, and the fast-breeder power and seawater-desalting plant at Shevchenko (Aktau), Kazakhstan.

Excerpt from a school film, Grade 10, entitled “Atomnaya Elektroenergetika”, one of four which we purchased earlier this year from a dealer in Ukraine. (The same source previously provided the English-language “For the Good of Man”.) All in Russian language, unsurprisingly ― we hope to be able to add English subtitles in the near future.

[grainfreeandhappykitchen]

Do you know what this is? Have you ever cooked salt cod or bakala before. Well it’s my first time so keep an eye out over the next day or two 🐟 🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟 #saltcod #bakala #fish #desalting #glutenfree #rawfish #dryfish #saltfish #grainfreeandhappykitchen https://www.instagram.com/grainfreeandhappykitchen/p/CY5Z6BuP4vC/?utm_medium=tumblr

[man-and-atom]

Everyone knows the names, “Three Mile Island”, “Chernobyl”, “Fukushima”. They are repeated again and again, ad nauseam, to remind us all that nuclear power is unacceptably dangerous.

Maybe, you will say, the St Francis Dam is forgotten simply because 1926 was a long time ago. The great Ru River dam collapse cascade of 1975 may have killed a quarter of a million people, but even elsewhere in China it was largely unreported at the time ― no surprise that it is largely unknown in the Western world. But have you heard of Vajont, in Italy, which killed 2000 people in Italy in 1963? Or Teton, Idaho, eleven deaths in 1976?

This is not “what-about-ism”. This is a reminder that, when we weigh alternatives, there may be a thumb pressing down on one side of the scale. The plain truth is, there is no honest debate over “nuclear energy and alternatives”.

Now, the St Francis Dam, as is very common, was constructed primarily for water supply : electricity supply was a secondary function. Much of the world’s population, and more especially the urban population, lives near the ocean, but the cities mostly get their water from inland, at significant cost to the environment, and sometimes in human lives. Nuclear power stations, constructed primarily for electricity supply, can be used also to supply fresh water from the sea, through some combination of thermal distillation and reverse osmosis. In fact, in the 1960s, the Bolsa Island Project was planned and very nearly carried into effect, to supply the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California with fresh water from the sea.

[getfreebooks-blog]

The Electrosorb Process for Desalting Water (Johnson)

Free Ebook - http://dlvr.it/6PW843