Welcome to our regular technology update!
Thames Water Planning Update
Thames Water, serving densely populated parts of England, have updated their Water Management Plan. More details on the Thames Water webiste. Some key points are now:
- Reducing leaks from their own and customers’ pipes by 50% before 2050 (a very long term goal).
- Reduce water consumption by 20% from 140 L per day to 110 L per day.
- A new reservoir and a new river abstraction point.
- Increase production by an additional 1 billion liters of water per day by 2075.
Spain’s Water Reuse Peaks
In the Spanish region Murcia, details have been published showing up to 98% of wastewater is reused after treatment. This is means that most municipal and industrial wastewater is used for irrigation. Multiple studies have been published over the past 10 years showing that this is a safe practice and that the water quality is above all limits (publication).
Japan Starts Treated Nuclear Cooling Water Release
A controversial next step from Japan has been to start the release of stored water, which had been used to cool the Fukushima nuclear reactor after its meltdown, into the sea. The water has been inspected and has been found to contain values less than 2% of the safe drinking water limit of Tritium. The main treatment method used has been named the advanced liquid processing system (ALPS) and works in staged removal:
- Iron coprecipitation to remove alpha nuclides (particles).
- Carbonate precipitation to remove metals like strontium.
- A sequence of 16 absorber columns to remove any other nuclides.
- Dilution with clean seawater to achieve concentrations below discharge limits.