§ Mr. Murtonasked the Minister of Technology what steps he has now taken to encourage practical research and development on the desalting of sea water for industrial use.
§ Mr. CousinsAs I announced on 27th April, in reply to my hen. Friend the Member for Barking (Mr. Driberg), I have made the Atomic Energy Authority responsible for Government research and development into methods of desalination. 73W The initial programme involves expenditure of about £1.5 million from public funds. Further substantial sums will be spent by industry with whom the Authority is co-operating closely.
The Authority and industry have completed a design for a plant to produce 30 million gallons of fresh water a day from sea water. Further design work has been done, particularly in respect of dual purpose plants for producing electric power and fresh-water from nuclear reactors, and economic studies on these plants have been carried out in some detail.
At the recent international conference on desalination in Washington the great contribution made by Britain in the field of desalination in the past was recognised. More than two-thirds of all land-based desalination capacity in the world, in- 74W cluding the world's biggest sea-water distillation plant at Kuwait—1.4 million gallons a day—was built by British industry. Much interest was also shown, in Washington, in details of the British design studies for combined power and distillation plants. The Authority, in conjunction with Weir Westgarth and the nuclear engineering industry, has done a great deal of work on optimising the steam cycle of these dual purpose plants, and this work is continuing.
The flash distillation process—a British invention—remains the most promising process so far available. Every effort is being made to improve the technical and economic efficiency of the process. In addition, work has been started on alternative processes, such as reverse osmosis and electrodialysis, which may become increasingly important in future.