Tournament: Newman Smith | Round: 2 | Opponent: Grapevine KB | Judge: Perrault
Desalination DA
Shell – Desalination DA
Nuclear power is key to desalination and the prevention of water shortages.
IAEA, multinational institution that seeks to promote the safe, secure and peaceful use of nuclear technologies, "New Technologies for Seawater Desalination Using Nuclear Energy," IEAE TecDoc Series, 2015
It is anticipated that by 2025, 33 of the world population, or more than 1.8 billion people, will live in countries or regions without adequate supplies of water unless new desalination plants become operational. In many areas, the rate of water usage already exceeds the rate of replenishment. Nuclear reactors have already been used for desalination on relatively small-scale projects. In total, more than 150 reactor-years of operating experience with nuclear desalination has been accumulated worldwide. Eight nuclear reactors coupled to desalination projects are currently in operation in Japan. India commissioned the ND demonstration project in the year 2008 and the plant has been in continuous operation supplying demineralised (DM) quality water to the nuclear power plant and potable quality to the reservoir. Pakistan has launched a similar project in 2010. However, the great majority of the more than 7500 desalination plants in operation worldwide today use fossil fuels with the attendant emission of carbon dioxide and other GHG. Increasing the use of fossil fuels for energy-intensive processes such as large-scale desalination plants is not a sustainable long-term option in view of the associated environmental impacts. Thus, the main energy sources for future desalination are nuclear power reactors and renewable energy sources such as solar, hydro, or wind, but only nuclear reactors are capable of delivering the copious quantities of energy required for large-scale desalination projects. Algeria is participating in an IAEA's CRP in the subject related to "New technologies for seawater desalination using nuclear energy'' with a project entitled "Optimization of coupling nuclear reactors and desalination systems for an Algerian site Skikda". This project is a contribution to the IAEA CRP to enrich the economic data corresponding to the choice of technical and economical options for coupling nuclear reactors and desalination systems for specific sites in the Mediterranean region
Nuclear energy already key to water.
IAEA 15 — widely known as the world's "Atoms for Peace" organization within the United Nations family. Set up in 1957 as the world's centre for cooperation in the nuclear field, the Agency works with its Member States and multiple partners worldwide to promote the safe, secure and peaceful use of nuclear technologies, "New Technologies for Seawater Desalination Using Nuclear Energy," IEAE TecDoc Series, 2015
Addressing water shortages is a difficult challenge for many countries due to population growth and the increasing need for water to support industry, agriculture and urban development. Innovative water management strategies are certainly needed to preserve water resources. But they may not be sufficient. Throughout the world, many highly populated regions face frequent and prolonged droughts. In these areas, where, for some reason, the natural hydrologic cycle cannot provide people with water, desalination is used to provide~s~ people with potable water. Desalination systems fall into two main design categories, namely thermal and membrane types. Thermal designs –including MSF and MED- use flashing and evaporation to produce potable water while membrane designs use the method of RO. Desalination is the main technology being used to augment fresh water resources in water scarce coastal regions. With almost 64.4 million m3 /day (GWI 2012) of worldwide desalination water production capacity, about two third is produced by thermal distillation, mainly in the Middle East. Outside this region, membrane-based systems predominate. Both processes are energy-intensive (Fig. I-1.). Even if power consumption has been reduced as technological innovations, such as energy recovery systems and variable frequency pumps (reverse RO plants), are introduced, it remains the main cost factor in water desalination. Traditionally, fossil fuels such as oil and gas have been the major energy sources. However, fuel price hikes and volatility as well as concerns about long term supplies and environmental release is prompting consideration of alternative energy sources for seawater desalination, such as nuclear desalination and the use of renewable energy sources. Replacing fossil fuel by renewable (solar, wind, geothermal, biomass) or nuclear energy, could reduce the impacts on air quality and climate. FIG. I-1. Typical energy consumption of technologically mature desalination processes. The idea of using nuclear energy to desalinate seawater is not new. Since the USS nautilus was commissioned more than a half century ago, the drinking water on nuclear submarines has come from reactor-powered desalination systems. Today, nuclear desalination is being 106 used by a number of countries, including India and Japan, to provide fresh water for growing populations and irrigation. Commercial uses are also being considered in Europe, the Middle East and South America. The IAEA has always been an important contributor to the RandD effort in nuclear desalination. In 2009, it launched a coordinated research programme entitled "New Technologies for Seawater Desalination using Nuclear Energy", focusing on the introduction of innovative nuclear desalination technologies, producing desalted water at the lowest possible cost and in a sustainable manner. The French atomic and alternative energies commission (CEA) expressed interest in participating to the CRP. A research proposal, aiming at using CEA software tools to develop optimized nuclear desalination systems was established and submitted to the IAEA. The studies focused on the development of optimized nuclear desalination systems producing large amounts of desalinated water while minimizing the impact on the efficiency of power conversion. Technologically mature desalination processes viz. MEE and RO have been considered for the study. Each of these systems will be modelled using innovative techniques developed in CEA. Models would first be validated (against experimental results published in literature, or obtained through bilateral collaborations involving CEA) and then applied to optimize the energy use in the integrated power and water plants.
Famine or poverty destroys social stability which contributes to rebellions. People turn to extremist organizations when they have no hope – when there is literally no food for their families. More water key to Middle East stability.
Hussein, editor-in-chief of the parliamentary news division at Rose al-Yusuf. An expert in African affairs, Hussein has collaborated with the Nile Channel, writing and preparing newscasts, 2015
(Walaa, "How IS uses water as weapon of war", Al Monitor, May 11, Online http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/05/arab-world-water-conflict-isis-control-war.html, Accessed September 9 – MG)
PricewaterhouseCoopers, an international consulting organization, has identified numerous regions where the water crisis threatens to transform into a global conflict. Turkey, Syria and Iraq are included on that list, due to the Turkish dams controlling the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Iran and Iraq are also witnessing a compet~ing~ition over the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, known as Shatt al-Arab. Also included is Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, which are witnessing a conflict over the Nile. Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Chad and Niger are also experiencing a crisis in relation to an 800-meter (0.5-mile) deep underground water field and the Nubian sandstone aquifer. Libya wants to invest in this aquifer to extend an artificial river and supply its coastline with freshwater. Mahmoud Abu Zeid, president of the Arab Water Council, told Al-Monitor that the Arab region is facing a crisis because of the~re is a~ lack of rain and available water resources. The Arab region accounts for less than 7 of the world's water reserves, according to Abu Zeid, and less than 1 of the flowing water, while rain does not exceed 2 of the global average. "Arab water is facing a great danger, which portends the exacerbation of the water conflict given that freshwater resources are limited. However, there is a food gap that increases with the growing population, which threatens a famine by 2025 in the absence of concerted efforts," Abu Zeid said. Abu Zeid also warned against IS using water as a weapon. "IS' ~The Islamic State~ expansion has become ~been~ concentrated in water resource regions in Syria and Iraq, and it is very clear that IS is seeking to acquire parts of Arab water sources," he said. "Given that water represents life, seizing such resources in Arab countries would be very serious and would constitute an inhumane means of pressure." IS fighters control most of the upper areas of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which flow from Turkey in the north to the Gulf in the south. All of Iraq and a large part of Syria rely on these rivers for food, water and industry. Abu Zeid predicted that IS' attempts to control Arab water resources would lead to a water crisis that would overshadow the ongoing oil conflict, since water is a matter of life or death. Abu Zeid said the Arab Water Council is preparing a report on the tense water situation in IS-controlled areas. The council's experts have monitored a series of serious moves by IS that aim~s~ to gain control of Arab water sources as a means to exert pressure, such as the seizing of an Iraqi dam and controlling water resources in Syria. "We will work on raising this problem at the international level because it is a sign of a humanitarian disaster, given the number of countries ~IS~ is stationed in," he said. According to a September 2014 report from the Beirut Center for Middle East Studies, IS considers controlling rivers and dams to be a weapon more important than oil. IS' attempts to control water resources are in line with the group's announcement to extend its so-called caliphate from the Levant to Egypt, Ethiopia and the Maghreb, according to the group's caliphate map published in July 2014 on social media. This caliphate would extend into the headwaters of the Nile. The allegiance sworn by Boko Haram in March 2015 to IS emir Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was probably aimed at supporting the IS conspiracy to control the headwaters of the Nile. Asked about the Arab Water Council's strategy to confront the water crisis, Abu Zeid said, "We are currently working on maximizing water resources in the Arab region, especially since the Arab water conflict includes Arab-Arab conflicts due to the presence of common rivers between a number of Arab countries, as well as Arab conflicts with other countries, especially since the water quantity that comes from outside the Arab world accounts for more than 60 of the water used in Arab countries. "This is the threat that prompted us to resort to non-traditional water, especially treated agricultural water and wastewater," he said. "We are currently working on the direct exploitation of brackish water, which is abundantly found in the subsoil Arab aquifers, in agriculture. We are also seeking to mix this non-fresh water with pure water. We recently issued a manual outlining their uses. Add to this the desalination techniques of seawater that were adopted by several Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to face water scarcity." The water war is a ghost threatening the Middle East. Though the poor populations of this region are the only ones paying for the price of the oil conflict, the water wars will not spare anyone.
Water Scarcity will lead to war:
Davies,Representatives of Candesal Enterprises, 98
(K., "A FLOATING DESALINATION/CO-GENERATION SYSTEM USING THE KLT-40 REACTOR AND CANADIAN RO DESALINATION TECHNOLOGY", Ottawa, Canada, http://www.iaea.org/inis/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/31/062/31062376.pdf~~#page=46)-TG
There is a growing international recognition that the shortage of adequate supplies of potable water, which has already reached critical proportions in many areas of the world, is one of the major problems facing society as the 21st century approaches. There is also an acknowledged need for additional electrical generation capacity throughout the developing world. Frequently, these shortages in potable water supply and electrical energy exist together.
The supply of naturally occurring fresh water available for human use is limited. It consists of nonrenewable sources such as aquifers and other reservoirs that are not recharged as they are used, and renewable sources such as lakes, rivers, reservoirs and other sources that are replenished by the annual water, or hydrologic, cycle. However, the amount of water available in a given location as a result of the natural water cycle is essentially fixed. Thus as the population increases, the annual water supply per person, which is a general indicator of water security, decreases. The per capita water supplies worldwide are approximately one third less now than in 1970 due to population growth since that time.111 The water supply crises which already exist and are projected over the next few decades have received much attention recently.tl6! Population Action International expressed the concern quite succinctly when they stated161 that "without water, economic development becomes virtually impossible and conflict over scarce resources virtually inevitable" and "availability of and access to clean water and sanitation are among the most important determinants of the health of individual human beings."
Middle East conflict causes extinction.
Bahig Nassar 2002 (coordinator of Arab Coordination Center of NGOs) http://www.spokesmanbooks.com/Spokesman/PDF/77Nassar.pdf, MG)
Wars in the Middle East are of a new type. Formerly, the possession of nuclear weapons by the United States and the Soviet Union had prevented them, under the balance of the nuclear terror, from launching war against each other. In the Middle East, the possession of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction leads to military clashes and wars. Instead of eliminating weapons of mass destruction, the United States and Israel are using military force to prevent others from acquiring them, while they insist on maintaining their own weapons to pose deadly threats to other nations. But the production, proliferation and threat or use of weapons of mass destruction (nuclear chemical and biological) are among the major global problems which could lead, if left unchecked, to the extinction of life on earth. Different from the limited character of former wars, the current wars in the Middle East manipulate global problems and escalate their dangers instead of solving them. Natural resources, mainly oil, are the subject of major wars in the Middle East. But oil is a depleting resource which will soon vanish. This will lead to another global problem since all human civilisations depend mainly on this source of energy.