Not A Comforting Thought

[Hagar]

Desalination might not be so expensive or impractical as I thought. China has gone for it in a big way. You might find this interesting.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-04/24/content_325958.htm It doesn't say which method they use or what they use to power the plants. Nuclear power is one option.

According to the seawater freshening programme, China will upgrade its capability to desalinate 100,000 to 150,000 tons of seawater each day in 2005 to satisfy the daily demands for about 7. 5 million people.

The daily amount of desalinated seawater will then increase to 300,000 to 400,000 tons to meet the consumption of more than 20 million Chinese by 2010, compared to China's current 40,000 tons of desalinated seawater.

[commoner]

Desalination might not be so expensive or impractical as I thought. China has gone for it in a big way. You might find this interesting.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-04/24/content_325958.htm It doesn't say which method they use or what they use to power the plants. Nuclear power is one option.

...lol.....China is taking an unprecedented amount of crude these days.......what's the odds on them using OIL to run the desalination plants?............Oh dear!.......commoner

...Just another point which always bugs me...how much fresh drinking water is used in the world to, among many other uses, FLUSH LOOS?  What a waste.....

[Anti-Societys Snake]

we will never ever, run out of water. didn't of you pay attenion during 3rd grade science? It all evaperates and is then rained upon us. the only places with water crisis, are the ones in the middle east. and water crisis have been there since probobly the begining of time.

[Woodlouse2002]

Which is what i've been saying. Where before there has been plenty of water there will remain plenty of water. Where water has been hard to find it will remain so. Parts of the world have been short of water ever since this planet was formed and it's not going to change. Global warming will only ensure we get more rain and that the icecaps melt giving us yet more water. And as for desalination plants. You don't need all that. All you need is a saucepan and a condenser. Or failing that just put salt water into your moonshine equipment and use that to produce fresh water.

[Hagar]

I'm not convinced it has anything to do with global warming but this area which has natural fresh water reservoirs in the South Downs is now extremely short of water. There are two main reasons for this, the increase in population & unusually dry weather over the last few years. The amount of water used by the average family has increased tremendously in the last couple of decades which adds to the problem. As Commoner points out, precious drinking water is used for everything including flushing the loo.

After the last drought in this area a couple of years ago they said we were now using water that had been there since the Ice Age. This was unknown & if it carried on for any length of time supplies would take decades to recover. Unless you build a desalination plant to speed up the process you can't get fresh water without rain. It didn't rain much here at all last winter which is why they're already talking about water shortages this summer. This is real & happening now. Places that have no natural supply or that rely on artificial reservoirs will be even worse off.

I was quite surprised on looking around the web to see how serious this problem is all over the world. This is not just in previously dry areas.

[commoner]

we will never ever, run out of water. didn't of you pay attenion during 3rd grade science? It all evaperates and is then rained upon us. the only places with water crisis, are the ones in the middle east. and water crisis have been there since probobly the begining of time.

..lol.......that's the theory and fine for third graders............then after a while we have to wake up join the real world with all it's problems.......commoner

[yancovitch]

would have been neat if our costal cities had been designed with a double water system ...one fresh and one salt, for toilets etc..even baths..opens alot of possibilities hehe......and if the whole world suddenly somehow got involved in desalinization. just think, we'd one day be able to walk across the ocean of salt.... hehe....gag

[Da Judge]

Scientists have also found oil reserves on other planets, we just have to tap into them.

[TacitBlue]

 when did this happen? Dosnt oil require organic material to form naturally?

[ATI_7500]

 when did this happen? Dosnt oil require organic material to form naturally?

Aye.

[commoner]

[quote]

[Scorpiоn]

It's not a lack of water, it's a lack of fresh, usable, drinkable water.  In theory, Indonesia and Thailand and all the other countries should have no issue with water, especially after water crashed in everywhere, but, yet, water was one of the most pressing issues in the region after the Tsunami.  Dunno if it still is, as the media has moved on to more glossy stories.

Any oil on other planets would be so costly to retrieve it wouldn't be worth it.  We'd probably use at least double of whatever we got back.  Assuming there was even a drop to begin with.

[767-300er]

So they have & guess where some of those nuclear reactors are? Right, just across the Channel from where I'm sitting now. If anything did go wrong I'm the one in most danger, not anyone in France unless the wind changes from the prevailing SW. Goodness knows how much toxic waste they dump in the Channel. To the best of my knowledge there are no current plans to build any new nuclear power stations in Europe.

They don't dump any waste(unless a pipe breaks). the actual water that cools the reactor dosent get pumped out to sea. It is a closed loop system. The actual water from the sea dosent touch the radioactive water. It is pumped through a heat exchanger to cool the radioactive loop.

[Hagar]

They don't dump any waste(unless a pipe breaks). the actual water that cools the reactor dosent get pumped out to sea. It is a closed loop system. The actual water from the sea dosent touch the radioactive water. It is pumped through a heat exchanger to cool the radioactive loop.

That's what they like you to think. I'm not talking about cooling water. This is not the first time & won't be the last. It's also one we found out about. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1512884,00.html

The Sunday Times - Britain

March 06, 2005

'Reckless' nuclear plant dumps waste on beaches

SAFETY breaches at one of Britain's biggest nuclear research stations resulted in hundreds of thousands of radioactive particles escaping into the environment, a former safety officer has revealed.
Highly radioactive waste was pumped into the sea and evidence of the pollution was covered up by managers who had a "reckless" disregard for public health, according to Herbie Lyall, a health physics surveyor at the Dounreay plant in Caithness for 30 years.

[Woodlouse2002]

Aye but that was a nuclear research station. In a power station anything that comes into contact with the nasty stuff is sealed in a concrete box with the reactor.