Nuclear powered water desalination | A long term solution for Pakistan?

[Kompromat]

I am posting this small study to start a debate over the potential of nuclear desalination. Karachi already has a nuclear powered desalination plant on a small scale. With the a gigantic reactor being built for Karachi and in the light of a looming water shortage thanks to govt's water mismanagement, it makes sense to have a large desalination plant powered through the new 1 gigawatt reactor. This can help us relieve the burden from water management and would prove useful for water conservation for agriculture instead.

Please participate.

No copyrights claimed.

Aeronaut

 

[Kompromat]

Looks like, there ain't any takers for real issues.

 

[Levina]

FYI @Armstrong
This is something we had talked about few weeks back.

@Aeronaut
The report you've posted is of 2005.
I found another article on the same posted in 2007 which says project is progressing well.
Whats the status of the project now???
Pakistan embarks on nuclear desalination

 

[Kompromat]

@levina

Its functional but its tiny. I want to pump out water out of the Arabian sea in pipelines powered by nuclear powered motors into our dams. Once it mixes with our river beds it will become viale for agriculture as the salt content will be diluted. T

 

[Bratva]

We have to come over political differences Honorable Qaim ali shah thinks nuclear power plant is not good for karachi and Sindh! Warna to China is read to invest 5-6 Billion dollar

 

[Kompromat]

We have to come over political differences Honorable Qaim ali shah thinks nuclear power plant is not good for karachi and Sindh! Warna to China is read to invest 5-6 Billion dollar

He's probably getting paid by 'someone'.

 

[Levina]

He's probably getting paid by 'someone'.

The source of money is not India

@levina

Its functional but its tiny. I want to pump out water out of the Arabian sea in pipelines powered by nuclear powered motors into our dams. Once it mixes with our river beds it will become viale for agriculture as the salt content will be diluted. T

From what i've gleaned the beds of canals and dams are lined thickly wid salts.So is there any other way desalination can be carried out in these canal and dam beds???

 

[Armstrong]

The source of money is not India

You never gave @Ayush and Me any pocket money either !

Whats the point of having an Old Apa who doesn't even do that !

 

[Levina]

You never gave @Ayush and Me any pocket money either !

Whats the point of having an Old Apa who doesn't even do that !

@Aeronaut
This cartoon is trolling in seniors cafe too.

 

[Armstrong]

@Aeronaut
This cartoon is trolling in seniors cafe too.

@Aeronaut is my Brother - Shikaitiii Tatuuu (I dunno how to translate that into English...maybe tell-tale) !

Waisee wouldn't Desalination using Nuclear Power be a slight over-kill ? Surely there are less capital intensive methods out there who's energy production can be used for that end ?

 

[VCheng]

@levina

Its functional but its tiny. I want to pump out water out of the Arabian sea in pipelines powered by nuclear powered motors into our dams. Once it mixes with our river beds it will become viale for agriculture as the salt content will be diluted. T

Whether it is desalination or whether it is pumping of water into reservoirs for storage, the bottom line is that lots of power is needed. Nuclear power for these uses is just like any other power source. It takes a lot of capital, expertise and management to build and keep large scale power sources running in a cost effective way.

For desalination near the coast, generating power by coal may be more cost effective than nuclear power. For pumping water to large dams, the pipelines needed for the upstream flow will add a huge expense to the project. Besides, water flow in the rivers varies widely annually. Mixing in saline water may not be such a good idea for agriculture in the long run, given the already seen problems of water logged salinity in many prime areas.

 

[Kompromat]

@VCheng l Huzoor, the water doesn't need to be desalinated for irrigation puposes. Kachi cannal will bring 700,000^2 acre of land to cultivateable status in Balochistan.

We need to use our sea water to irrigate mass amount of land for corporate agriculturural potential.

We got shit loads of empty land which can be made useable and we are surrounded by China, C.Asia, Iran and Middle east whom we can export food items as their population grows.

I didn't imply that we should get dedicated nuclear reactors for powering the motors for pumping water and for desalination. We can use existing plans for erecting new reactors in this domain.

Coal proposal of yours is also practical.

 

[janon]

It is simply not possible, as a long term measure. You would have to spend more money to make it work, than the money that you would earn. Desalinaton is an extremely energy hungry process, and as it is, Pak is suffering crippling energy shortages. Desalination is a temporary solution for some specific circumstaces, like in oceangoing ships or submarines that have no other source of freshwater. It is also the only recourse for some freshwater deficient places like Israel and the rest of the middle east. But for Pak, which has a lot of untapped freshwater resources (read rivers), it makes more sense to exploit those resources, rather than spending money on desalination plants. Leave such antics for water starved but oil rich nations.

 

[VCheng]

@VCheng l Huzoor, the water doesn't need to be desalinated for irrigation puposes. Kachi cannal will bring 700,000^2 acre of land to cultivateable status in Balochistan.

We need to use our sea water to irrigate mass amount of land for corporate agriculturural potential.

We got shit loads of empty land which can be made useable and we are surrounded by China, C.Asia, Iran and Middle east whom we can export food items as their population grows.

I didn't imply that we should get dedicated nuclear reactors for powering the motors for pumping water and for desalination. We can use existing plans for erecting new reactors in this domain.

Coal proposal of yours is also practical.

Here is a nice article for this topic:

http://www.miracosta.edu/home/kmeldahl/articles/crops.pdf

crops_Page_1 by VChengPhotos, on Flickr

crops_Page_2 by VChengPhotos, on Flickr

crops_Page_3 by VChengPhotos, on Flickr

crops_Page_4 by VChengPhotos, on Flickr

crops_Page_5 by VChengPhotos, on Flickr

crops_Page_6 by VChengPhotos, on Flickr

 

[Kompromat]

@VCheng | Huzoor no one is arguing to inject sea water directly to the crops. If we can pump enough water into our dams to make up for the shortfall, it can mix up with the normal river flow and would become suitable for irrigation.