The United States appears ready to go ahead with aid to Israel for the construction of a sea-water desalination plant which might be the first in the world to use atomic energy, the Washington Post reported from Rome today. The project grew out of proposals made by former President Dwight D. Eisenhower and former Atomic Energy Commission chairman, Admiral Lewis L. Strauss. It has been reportedly endorsed by President Richard M. Nixon. Preliminary discussions between American and Israeli experts took place during the Johnson Administration.
American officials described the plans at an international conference on water purification in Rome, according to the Post. The 1970 Federal budget includes $40 million to help Israel construct a desalination plant that might use atomic energy, it said. Nuclear energy is practical only for desalting plants with a capacity of 100 million gallons a day, which would be produced in the plant envisaged for Israel in addition to the daily generation of 300 megawatts of electrical power. Also under consideration is a 450 million gallon-per-day desalting and electric power plant to serve Israel and the neighboring Arab states. Whether the plant in Israel, if built, will be the first to use atomic power will depend on what the Russians are doing in this field. The Soviets were known to be working on a nuclear desalination plant but their activities were shrouded in secrecy, the Post report said.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
