30 Sites Under Consideration : Water Agency to Study Building Reactor

The Metropolitan Water District will undertake a $300,000 study of the feasibility of building a nuclear reactor, possibly next door to Los Angeles International Airport, that would convert sea water to drinking water and generate electricity.

But the plant would not open until the year 2020 at the earliest, and probably will not be built at all because of safety and political considerations, water district spokesman Jay Malinowski said.

“It might sound absurd,” Malinowski said, “but this study is to determine whether we should study these things in depth.”

Malinowski said the initial study was approved because of the potential for tapping a large, stable source of water for Southern California.

The study will consider 30 coastal sites between Oxnard and the Mexican border, officials said, including a property west of the airport and just north of the Hyperion waste treatment plant. Other sites being studied, though considered less likely, include Terminal Island in San Pedro, Point Vicente in Rancho Palos Verdes and the Ballona Wetlands in Playa del Rey.

Desalination Plant

The water district has discussed converting saltwater to freshwater--a process known as desalination--for more than 30 years. In the 1950s, the district drew up the list of 30 locations that it considered large enough and close enough to major water lines for a desalination plant.

The district has maintained an 80-acre property at Bolsa Chica State Beach in Orange County with the thought of using it for a such a plant, Malinowski said, but the district may swap that land for the property near LAX.

The other 28 locations will be considered equally along with the Bolsa Chica and LAX properties, officials said.

The survey, to be completed in October, will determine how much drinking water and electricity a plant could produce.

The reactor would use helium gas instead of water as a coolant, as do several plants in Europe and one near Denver. Those reactors produce only energy, whereas the water district plant would be unique in that the electricity would be used to take salt out of ocean water.

Desalting ocean water is just one technique that officials have considered to increase the area’s water supplies. The district’s Energy and Desalination Committee heard a proposal last year from a Los Angeles entrepreneur to tow icebergs south from Alaska to melt them for drinking water. The man also intended to display the floating ice as a tourist attraction.

That proposal was rejected by the committee. The panel decided, however, that $300,000 was a small price to pay for a look at tapping the ocean, said committee chairman A. B. Smedley.

The study also was approved by the board of directors for the water district, which has a yearly budget of $440 million and provides water wholesale to agencies and companies, which sell it to consumers.

“We cannot, out of hand, reject something that can hold the promise of producing some necessary water,” Malinowski said. He called the cost of the study “a reasonable amount, given the possibilities.”