How come we don't use nuclear reactors to desalinate water

[Micrornd]

Treating waste water back to drinking standard is less than 1/2 the cost of desalinization.

Actually less than 15-20%.
Waste water already is required to be treated, by federal standards, to all the standards of potable water, except for taste and odor.
This normally requires only one, or two at the most, additional steps in treatment.

The only real hurdle involved is the legislation AND getting people over the stigma of knowing how the water was once used.
Of course, since there is no such thing as "new" water, it's all been used as waste water at one time or another by some form of life.

 

[feralkid]

That's a less worse problem than all the pollution oil makes.

Worse case scenario we shoot the rods up into space, but there are probably ways they could be recycled or used to a further extent, but there's politics behind that too.

By "politics", I assume you mean "money".

 

[Jeff7]

Actually less than 15-20%.
Waste water already is required to be treated, by federal standards, to all the standards of potable water, except for taste and odor.
This normally requires only one, or two at the most, additional steps in treatment.

The only real hurdle involved is the legislation AND getting people over the stigma of knowing how the water was once used.
Of course, since there is no such thing as "new" water, it's all been used as waste water at one time or another by some form of life.

Bah, sure there is. Every shuttle launch burns some hydrogen, spewing out plenty of brand new water vapor, which probably represents somewhere around 0.00000000000000000021% of all water on the planet.

 

[IronWing]

People probably think that there are just giant piles of the waste all over, like you could fill Rhode Island with it.

There are. Nuke waste isn't just not spent fuel. It's also depleted UF6, mill wastes, and mine wastes. Each type of waste has it's own problems. Nothing on the scale of coal wastes but still significant.

 

[SSSnail]

A. Oregon beaches>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>California beaches
B. Building reactors in a subduction earthquake/tsunami hazard zone = not awesome idea

Did they legalize weeds in Oregon as well?

 

[JEDIYoda]

Is that even possible? California could use it...

We could place the reactors on oregon beaches and then transport the water down to California

The same reason we don`t use a blow torch....

 

[Auric]

Actually less than 15-20%.
Waste water already is required to be treated, by federal standards, to all the standards of potable water, except for taste and odor.
This normally requires only one, or two at the most, additional steps in treatment.

The only real hurdle involved is the legislation AND getting people over the stigma of knowing how the water was once used.
Of course, since there is no such thing as "new" water, it's all been used as waste water at one time or another by some form of life.

But municipal water is commonly contaminated with consumer chemicals (including pharmaceuticals), particularly where waterways are both the source and sink, so the mandated filtration is clearly inadequate.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/poisonedwaters/

 

[zoiks]

You'd be drinking de-salinated nuclear water.
Imagine having a two headed baby...*shudder*.

 

[Phanuel]

You'd be drinking de-salinated nuclear water.
Imagine having a two headed baby...*shudder*.

Oh, we're running sea water through the rods to boil it? Cool.

 

[MongGrel]

Because of salt.

 

[Brian Stirling]

The amount of spent fuel maybe fairly small but what about the equipment that becomes radio active due to neutron activation?


Brian

 

[Paratus]

The amount of spent fuel maybe fairly small but what about the equipment that becomes radio active due to neutron activation?


Brian

There's a lot more waste. It's just not as radioactive and doesn't have the same long term issues.

It's a lot less waste than coal or oil.

 

[John Connor]

Let's burn that shit in a breeder reactor.

France reprocesses their spent rods. Don't know why we don't

 

[John Connor]

http://www.keyt.com/news/diablo-canyon-desal-water-now-available-to-cal-fire/33107548

Why the hell is that site hosted in Germany!?

 

[John Connor]

When I was a fire fighter explorer I was at a training exercise where they had a giant boob looking canister on the back of a truck that was supposedly was going to be used to transport the spent nuclear waist across the U.S to Yucca MT. These canisters were made to withstand a barrage of damage. Like being hit from a train or dropped. You could indeed use a canister like that in the back of a space vehicle and launch toward the sun.

 

[Jeff7]

There are. Nuke waste isn't just not spent fuel. It's also depleted UF6, mill wastes, and mine wastes. Each type of waste has it's own problems. Nothing on the scale of coal wastes but still significant.

Yeah...good point.

(Still not enough to fill Rhode Island, I'd wager. :sneaky

 

[Muse]

A. Oregon beaches>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>California beaches
B. Building reactors in a subduction earthquake/tsunami hazard zone = not awesome idea

Don't know about A. (maybe true), but B. is definitely true. Actually, CA is not a subduction zone, the San Andreas (main fault) is a "right lateral strike slip fault."

 

[mikeford]

If we really cared about global warming there would be nuclear reactors and desalination plants all along the coast of Africa turning the whole continent into a lush green landscape. Same for all the worlds desert areas.

 

[brainhulk]

so the steam generated is radioactive? There goes that idea...

 

[The Boston Dangler]

so the steam generated is radioactive? There goes that idea...

most npp's have a heat exchanger isolating the reactor and turbine loops.

 

[sportage]

We should have the best high speed rail in the world, solar power far advanced from what we have today, cars that run on anything but oil and gas, the cleanest air and water in the earths history, but NO....
No... politics and corruption keeps us buying dirty gas guzzling cars, factories that pollute our air and streams, dependency on oil, and some of the worse roads and bridges as the most poverty stricken third world countries on earth.
And a third graders understanding when it comes to science.

All while some politician pockets a few bucks under the table while preaching to us about morality as he diddles some underage kid on the side.
In other words, business as usual.
Welcome to the dark side.

 

[TridenT]

Better ways to use the energy from a nuclear powerplant.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

We should have the best high speed rail in the world

feel free to pay for it, and uproot everything in the way of a new high speed railway. and how much energy and materials would the creation of a continent-wide high speed replacement rail system consume?

solar power far advanced from what we have today

feel free to rewrite physics. btw, do you have any idea how much mining and toxic pollution is involved with the production of solar panels and batteries?

cars that run on anything but oil and gas

you want cars that run on anything but an actual source of energy. hydrogen, alcohol and any other fluid are not sources of energy. they are energy mediums that require even more energy to produce.

the cleanest air and water in the earths history

wow. no.

 

[Murloc]

If we really cared about global warming there would be nuclear reactors and desalination plants all along the coast of Africa turning the whole continent into a lush green landscape. Same for all the worlds desert areas.

most of africa is already green.

If you want to grow a forest in the sahara, you're going to need way more water than that, I'm not sure you appreciate how big that thing is.

Besides, availability of water is not the issue, but rather its distribution.
Maybe americans should evacuate environmentally unsustainable urban areas or force the steppe dwellers to live like everybody else already does in arid areas, i.e. no green carpet in front of every house.
The way to do that is to make the water price vary with availability, that's a basic tenet of capitalism, and ban HOAs from preventing people from killing their lawn and replacing it with rocks.
Maybe this sounds unethical as poor people wouldn't be able to afford water while rich people can fill up their pool, but it's not that different from freezing to death in New York because it has limited building space and you can't afford the rent, both have to be compensated with taxes and social spending.