94
The Last Resource
such as Australia, France, Germany, Holland, Italy and the USSR
are involved. Many millions of pounds are being spent throughout
the world each year in the search for the ‘break—through’ dreamed of
by President Kennedy. The research varies from laboratory tests
producing a few precious drops to the installation of demonstration
plant producing a million gallons a day.
At Shevchenko the Soviet authorities have set up an experimental
test range
to evaluate various methods of desalination. The U.S.
authorities, as a result of the Demonstration Plant Act of 1958, have
built four plants at various sites, and three of these are still in
operation. A fth one also constructed under this programme
contains more experimental features than in the other demonstration
plant and is generally classed as a large pilot plant. The British
engineers and scientists have tended to rely more on their experience
with large commercial installations. However, Professor Silver has
suggested the construction of a large distillation unit nanced at a
low xed—interest rate, in which the difference in nancial terms
between this low xed rate and the more usual levels is regarded as a
research investment.
In the end, no matter what nancial wizardry is brought into play,
the fact remains that desalination is moving to a new, more expen—
sive, phase where scientic and technical know—how gained in the
laboratory and pilot installations must be put to the test in more
ambitious projects. Extrapolation has its limits, and eventually
someone has to decide to go ahead and build. This decision will
impose a heavy financial burden and therefore the ranks are
beginning to close—and in addition to the proliferation of published
papers on desalination, the number of international agreements on
various projects is also growing. The USSR and the United States,
for example, have agreed to co—operate and exchange information,
and their experts have already inspected each other’s installations.
Meanwhile, the world still awaits the construction of the rst really
large dual purpose plant—not until this is done and the new prob—
lems created by handling water and steam on an unprecedented
scale have been solved will the pundits be able to give the nal
verdict on current effort to sweeten the seas.
Politics and perspective
In 1964 the United Nations Department of Economic and Social
Affairs amounced the results of a world—wide survey made to
The Last Resource
such as Australia, France, Germany, Holland, Italy and the USSR
are involved. Many millions of pounds are being spent throughout
the world each year in the search for the ‘break—through’ dreamed of
by President Kennedy. The research varies from laboratory tests
producing a few precious drops to the installation of demonstration
plant producing a million gallons a day.
At Shevchenko the Soviet authorities have set up an experimental
test range
to evaluate various methods of desalination. The U.S.
authorities, as a result of the Demonstration Plant Act of 1958, have
built four plants at various sites, and three of these are still in
operation. A fth one also constructed under this programme
contains more experimental features than in the other demonstration
plant and is generally classed as a large pilot plant. The British
engineers and scientists have tended to rely more on their experience
with large commercial installations. However, Professor Silver has
suggested the construction of a large distillation unit nanced at a
low xed—interest rate, in which the difference in nancial terms
between this low xed rate and the more usual levels is regarded as a
research investment.
In the end, no matter what nancial wizardry is brought into play,
the fact remains that desalination is moving to a new, more expen—
sive, phase where scientic and technical know—how gained in the
laboratory and pilot installations must be put to the test in more
ambitious projects. Extrapolation has its limits, and eventually
someone has to decide to go ahead and build. This decision will
impose a heavy financial burden and therefore the ranks are
beginning to close—and in addition to the proliferation of published
papers on desalination, the number of international agreements on
various projects is also growing. The USSR and the United States,
for example, have agreed to co—operate and exchange information,
and their experts have already inspected each other’s installations.
Meanwhile, the world still awaits the construction of the rst really
large dual purpose plant—not until this is done and the new prob—
lems created by handling water and steam on an unprecedented
scale have been solved will the pundits be able to give the nal
verdict on current effort to sweeten the seas.
Politics and perspective
In 1964 the United Nations Department of Economic and Social
Affairs amounced the results of a world—wide survey made to