Nukes to Make Desal at San Onofre
Desalinization projects are the newest hope for the developer lobby in Southern California to find new ways to provide water for all the new construction projects they want to build in our increasingly dry desert. The limitations of course are power, concerns about where to put these plants and their impact on the marine and coastal ecosystem (since they suck in and discharge huge amounts of water.
But the OC's Chuck Devore, of the 70th Assembly District has an idea to get around this. He wants to build a new nuclear power plant at San Onofre to provide energy for desal for all of southern California. Here is Mr. Devore in the OCBlog:
More nuclear power = More fresh water
I introduced a bill to allow the construction of a new nuclear reactor at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station for the purpose of powering a major desalination facility. My bill, ABX2 5, was introduced in the special session on water and would allow a new reactor to be built at San Onofre in North San Diego County. The site, which contains two operating reactors, could host a third if 20 percent of the new reactor's power is dedicated to water desalination. Anew reactor could produce about 1,200 megawatts of power. My bill would require that 240 megawatts of that power be designated for sea water desalination. This could provide about two-thirds of San Diego County's fresh water needs. Or, the fresh water could be piped out to San Diego, South Orange County, and Western Riverside County – all areas threatened by the tenuousness of the state's dwindling water supplies.
All the best
Chuck--our dwindling water supplies are due to the massive development boom in Southern California, drought associated with climate change and our unsustainable H2O consumption practices. Nukes=Water. What a nightmare. How about just implementing a green water conservation strategy for California. The irony here is that Chuck introduced the bill because the goal of the energy industry to have LNG plants up and down the coast in California has disappeared.
Serge
Looking at nuclear desalination in isolation from other environmental issues with water makes it easy to dismiss it out of hand. Comparing nuclear desalination with what southern California has done to the Owen's valley gives a completely different picture.
Nuclear electricity raises a similar issue. Southern California is a major consumer of imported coal electricity, and California has committed to stop using it. But will California actually do this, if it does not develop an alternative source that has the same baseload characteristics as coal?
The new high-temperature Pebble Bed Modular Reactor, as well as the GT-MHR, can produce electricity desalinated water much more efficiently than current water-cooled reactor technology, and have outstanding passive safety and security characteristics. California needs to look seriously at what nuclear technology options are out there, because we face serious water and energy challenges that justify giving nuclear another look. (Comment this)
David Walters (Comment this)