Nuclear power can help with the water shortage in the Middle East. You heard us. Despite the millions of litres of water needed every day just to cool a nuclear reactor, the wonder technology can help irrigate one of the driest places on the planet.
Once the logistical problems of investment, component production bottlenecks, skills shortages, and the transporting of dangerous nuclear materials into the world’s most politically unstable region are solved, and the plants have been built without coming under attack from one of the region’s many terrorist organisations, the reactors will apparently power desalination plants. Sounds so easy.
The Middle East, however, has an inexhaustible and abundant energy-producing resource that isn’t subject to the same problems of nuclear energy: it’s called sunlight. There’s loads of the stuff. And you know what? The market in sunlight can’t be controlled by anybody. Terrorists can’t blow the sun up or use it to make dirty bombs. The sun can’t be invaded by unfriendly countries. Not unless there’s a Middle Eastern dictator somewhere building fireproof spaceships.
Hook desalination plants up to solar energy generators. We’d drink to that.