What's the most autistic idea you've had for an engineering megaproject?
Considering how hard California is about to be fucked by the looming water shortage and subsequent desertification crisis, I've had the novel idea to build a massive nuclear desalinization plant near the sea that doubles as a pumping station which will create a huge new artificial lake in the area that is now Death Valley national park. Pic related, it would essentially be recreating an ancient lake that previously existed in that area.
The power plant would be a conventional boil-off type but on a scale never attempted, with a target output of almost 1 terawatt. The primary function of the powerplant would be desalinize seawater in enormous quantity and then pump the distilled water to Death Valley until the basin fills up creating a new lake which would be almost 600 feet deep have a shoreline 300 feet above sea level. Because the pipe network wold be well over 100 miles long and cross several mountain ranges, the water itself would be pumped as steam to a condensing center located at the area that would later become the new lake's west shore.
The new "Lake Sierra" would become the primary water source of both Los Angeles to the west and Las Vegas to the east, and the shore of the lake would become a highly sought-after site for community development. I would also massively cool the area and slow desertification by aborning the massive amounts of heat with evaporation.
As an added bonus: I'd build a new high-tech city "New Venice" on the north face of Lake Sierra located to the northwest of Tucki mountain. I chose that name because a large portion of the city would be located on huge artificial archipelagos, similar to the ones built in Dubai.
Post your craziest ideas. Don't be shy.
Considering how hard California is about to be fucked by the looming water shortage and subsequent desertification crisis, I've had the novel idea to build a massive nuclear desalinization plant near the sea that doubles as a pumping station which will create a huge new artificial lake in the area that is now Death Valley national park. Pic related, it would essentially be recreating an ancient lake that previously existed in that area.
The power plant would be a conventional boil-off type but on a scale never attempted, with a target output of almost 1 terawatt. The primary function of the powerplant would be desalinize seawater in enormous quantity and then pump the distilled water to Death Valley until the basin fills up creating a new lake which would be almost 600 feet deep have a shoreline 300 feet above sea level. Because the pipe network wold be well over 100 miles long and cross several mountain ranges, the water itself would be pumped as steam to a condensing center located at the area that would later become the new lake's west shore.
The new "Lake Sierra" would become the primary water source of both Los Angeles to the west and Las Vegas to the east, and the shore of the lake would become a highly sought-after site for community development. I would also massively cool the area and slow desertification by aborning the massive amounts of heat with evaporation.
As an added bonus: I'd build a new high-tech city "New Venice" on the north face of Lake Sierra located to the northwest of Tucki mountain. I chose that name because a large portion of the city would be located on huge artificial archipelagos, similar to the ones built in Dubai.
Post your craziest ideas. Don't be shy.
