Barry D. Ganapol is a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Arizona.

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No plan for dealing with water scarcity in Arizona holds much hope of success without some contribution from nuclear desalination. The enormity of the water problem is becoming more obvious, and conservation alone is i nsufficient to meet our needs. The time for political correctness in water management is in the past.

Nuclear desalination is not a wild idea. Using nuclear plants to desalinate seawater is safe, practical and affordable. Our water needs could be filled in part by pipelines running to populated areas from nuclear desalination plants on the Pacific Coast.

There is nothing complicated about desalination, in which salt and other dissolved minerals are removed from seawater. The most common process is known as reverse osmosis. Saltwater is pumped at high pressure through permeable membranes, separating salts from the water.

Desalination plants that use oil or natural gas as a source of energy to drive the process are small and inefficient. Moreover, energy use requirements for desalination plants are high, and fuel costs are soaring. Nuclear power is now a viable alternative to fossil fuels.

The great advantage of nuclear energy is its ability to provide large amounts of power to separate freshwater from salty seawater with only a small amount of fuel. And a nuclear plant hooked up to a desalination system can supply energy for the process without polluting the air or emitting greenhouse gases.

Japan and India produce freshwater desalination plants using nuclear energy, and consideration is being given to using the technology as a way to deal with water shortages in the Middle East, South America and Europe.

Nuclear desalination got its start with the U.S. military. Ever since the USS Nautilus was commissioned more than a half-century ago, the drinking water aboard nuclear submarines has come from reactor-powered desalination systems. Today's aircraft carriers also rely on nuclear desalination for potable water.

For Arizona's purposes, a nuclear cogeneration plant — one that generates electricity for the grid and heat for desalination — would make sense. A dual-use plant would reduce energy costs, and could supply the power to produce large amounts of desalinated water to augment supplies from the Colorado River.

This is the junction to reconsider our approach to ensuring adequate water supplies. The experience of recent years shows that conservation, along with metering and recycling wastewater, are likely to fall short of what's needed to meet water requirements, especially during droughts. And the water problem could grow worse as a result of the population explosion and climate change. Researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego recently warned that in years ahead the Southwest is likely to become warmer and more arid as a result of the atmospheric buildup of greenhouse gases.

But who will take the lead on nuclear desalination? In many respects, technology is the easy part. The challenge is to integrate nuclear technology with other water-management measures — and then to practice them.