VAULT
Nuclear Desalination
In this excerpt of an article first published in May 1965, an influential figure in the early history of nuclear power describes its potential to provide freshwater to growing populations.
Written by James T. Ramey
The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California, which began construction in 1968, has been proposed as a site for desalination. Photo: George Rose/Getty Images
IN JULY 1964, PRESIDENT JOHNSON instructed the Department of the Interior, in close collaboration with the AEC and in consultation with the Office of Science and Technology, to develop an aggressive and imaginative program for accelerated, large-scale desalting of seawater. The President’s directive specifically called for an optimum strategy and time schedule for relating the development of large-scale nuclear power technology to the development of large-scale desalting technology.
In general, the program is designed to advance the technology of water desalting so that within the next decade it could be a significant factor in meeting municipal and industrial needs for high-quality water on a local and regional basis in the United States and abroad.
The initial phase of Interior’s effort will concentrate on developing the entire technology of distillation for one or more intermediate prototype plants to be built in the late 1960s. The construction and operation of these plants should lead to a major decision point when the most attractive desalting process will be selected for development in a larger prototype plant. This is expected to occur in the early 1970s.
The size of the first intermediate distillation prototype will emerge from research and development activities and design studies. Present information indicates that the size may approximate 50 million gallons per day (gpd). The design and capacity of the larger-size, dual-purpose plants will be determined on the basis of the results of the earlier prototypes and parallel research efforts.
Lyndon Johnson spoke at the public unveiling of a desalination plant in Freeport, Texas, June 21, 1961. Built during a time of drought in southern Texas, the plant closed before the end of the decade. Photo: Coots Imagery Deluxe
The initial phase of the AEC’s effort will be to identify the reactor concepts and temperature ranges that offer favorable potential for desalting use.
The reactor concept presently considered most promising for large-scale power desalting use is the heavy-water, organic-cooled reactor (HWOCR). Recent studies have indicated that the HWOCR concept offers significant potential for producing low-cost electric power and heat, especially in large single unit sizes. Because of its specific design features, extrapolation to a large-scale unit of up to 8-10,000 MW (thermal) capacity is considered technically feasible at this time. The reactor also has the potential for very low energy costs whether used in power only or dual-purpose plants. As an advanced converter, the HWOCR also promises a substantial improvement in nuclear fuel utilization compared to present light-water reactors,
The tentative program plan for the development and demonstration of the selected reactor concept contemplates the construction and operation of two developmental prototypes. In sequence, the first prototype reactor would have about 1,000 MW (thermal) capacity and the second prototype about 3,500 MW.
It is expected that the initial prototype would be sufficiently developed to permit its operation in 1970. Since the first prototype reactor plant is scheduled for 1970 operation and since this plant would serve as a prototype for both power-only and dual-purpose application, it is not deemed necessary that this first prototype reactor of 1,000 MW (thermal) capacity be a dual-purpose plant. If the matching size desalting plant, an intermediate size desalting prototype of about 50 million gpd capacity, were demonstrated with a commercially available reactor heat source, the two prototype units, i.e., the 1,000 MW (thermal) prototype reactor and the intermediate size prototype desalting plant, could be operated independently.
President John F. Kennedy and others observe as James T. Ramey and John G. Palfrey are sworn in as members of the Atomic Energy Commission on August 31, 1962. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Such an arrangement would minimize the possible interference by one prototype plant with the operation of the other and at the same time provide valuable coupling data. Successes or difficulties also could be assessed separately. If each proves successful, the next step can be a combination, dual-purpose plant of the 3,500 MW (thermal) reactor prototype with a large-size prototype desalting plant.
Perhaps the most likely project in which the scale-up of nuclear-desalting technology will begin in the United States is being studied by the Department of the Interior and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). The three organizations entered into a contract for a detailed economic and engineering study of dual-purpose plants in the 150-to-750 MW electrical size range and 50-to-150 million gpd of water production capacity. We are hopeful that such an installation will become a reality by 1970.
Based on the data obtained from our research and development efforts and the prototype construction and operation experience of the program that have been proposed, we believe the technology and economics of nuclear energy sources will be available to meet the power and desalting needs of the United States and the world. We fully expect that by the mid-1970s we will have developed the technology of the large nuclear energy sources required for regional water supply systems, enabling water planning groups to consider nuclear desalting as a proved technical and economic alternative to more conventional water supply schemes.
James T. Ramey served as one of five commissioners at the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission from 1962 to 1973.
© 2025 The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. All rights reserved.