additional units to bring total daily water production at Guantanamo to 24 million gallons.

Most Americans who are at all knowledgeable on the subject agree and understand, I think, that certain of our communities have a serious shortage of water; that hundreds of other communities are now drinking water that falls considerably short of recommended purity levels; that with the rapidly growing need for water, the problem could become one of catastrophic proportions unless something is done; and that an important part of the problem will be solved if we can economically convert ocean salt water into potable water. They realize also, I believe, that what we do to help solve the worldwide problem of water resources will be a service to all mankind and a contribution to the image of America everywhere.

This leaves us with two basic questions to consider. First, what is the present and potential capability of American industry in the technology of water conversion? That is, can we convert sea water on a practical, economical basis? Second, what kind of water conversion program should we carry out?

As to the first question, speaking for Westinghouse, we consider that our technical capability is excellent. We can build plants that will purify ocean salt water. We know this because we are doing it.

From building the Point Loma plant and from the knowledge gained from our other installations, we know that there is no technical limitation on size. Now the time is right to move upward in size. It is technically feasible now to build desalting plants as large as anvone wants-50 million gallons a day, or 100 million gallons, or 150 million gallons, or larger-with life expectancy comparable to that of powerplants. The pioneering research work has been done. What remains to be done is a rigorous engineering effort, an effort to build ever larger plants to verify the point at which maximum advantage is gained from economics of size. Today's cost of about $1 per thousand gallons in a 1million-gallon-per-day plant could be reduced, we estimate, to from 30 to 35 cents in a plant of 50 million gallons per day capacity, based on like conditions. This would be water delivered at the water desalting plant boundary.

Thus the groundwork has been laid for an acceleration of the water conversion program as proposed by the President. This is a remarkable technical achievement, and all the more so because it has been done with a comparatively modest expenditure of Federal funds. Until a few years ago, of course, industry was conducting its research, development, and construction with its own money without Federal support.

When the Office of Saline Water began its program, it did so with a relatively small budget and an even smaller staff. Yet this small force, spending less than $7 million for demonstration plant construction and working closely with private industry, initiated and managed a fivepart prototype program of tremendous importance to the Nation.

This program has shown plainly that water can indeed be produced at far less than the $4 per thousand gallons which once was considered a realistic price. And, more important, it has produced basic knowledge about various processes and has shown what areas need more research and what areas need engineering as the next step forward.

The question that faces the Nation now is the crucial one: What direction should the water conversion program now take? In Mr. Kenneth Holum's words:

We have reached a point in the Department's desalting program where important decisions must be made.

In the opinion of Westinghouse, the best and fastest progress to bring down costs in water desalting and in the foreseeable future will be made in multistage flash distillation units such as that used at Point Loma, Guantanamo Bay, and in many other installations.

We have been conducting research in other water conversion methods for some years, including reverse osmosis, freezing, and vapor compression. We also have investigated the electrodialysis process. We are pushing ahead with construction of multistage flash distillation plants because we have found that no other process presently approaches the technical feasibility and the overall economy of this method; because it is the one process that has proved itself in operation; because it is the only system that is now producing water in volume; because it is 2 to 5 years ahead of the other systems; because it lends itself to combination with power production; and because it is the only system that is sufficiently developed and ready today for large-scale plant construction with firm price, performance, and completion date guaranteed by the builder.

This process has the additional advantage of lending itself well to future modifications as new advances in technology occur. It will not be rendered obsolete, for example, as we learn how to increase operating temperatures above the maximums possible today-an advance which lies ahead and which will substantially reduce the capital cost of plant construction for a given water output.

We believe, secondly, that there is a great potential for large plants that produce both electricity and pure water. To desalt water you need heat. A powerplant rejects well over half of its heat input. By every evidence of experience, technology, and economics, these two plants complement each other and belong together. It makes sense to take the flow of turbine steam in its lower stages and divert it in whole or in part for the production of fresh water. It goes without saying that there must be a market for a large amount of both water and power.

For those areas of our country that lack resources of fossil fuel and need massive amounts of water and power, there can be great economic and technical advantages in marrying the large atomic powerplant and the large water desalting plant. We believe that, as this technology develops and the need increases, this is the direction that water desalting will follow in such areas.

One basic factor to consider here is that the atomic powerplant lends itself admirably to the economy of size. The equation is quite simple and definite: The larger the atomic powerplant requirement, the lower the unit production cost, whether measured in B.t.u.'s of heat, kilowatt-hours of electricity, or gallons of water.

On the other hand, there is a more moderate reduction in unit cost as the conventional powerplant increases in size. There appears to be almost no significant reduction as a result of increasing the size of installations that convert water by processes other than distillation. The nuclear desalting plant can be a dual-purpose installation for

the production of electricity and water, or it can be a single-purpose plant for the production of water alone. But in either case, atomic power must pass the test of the marketplace, just as it is doing now in the powerplant field.

There is no magic correlation between a nuclear reactor and a flash evaporator that is to say, a nuclear reactor is still the same heat source, whether it is hooked up to a steam turbine or an evaporator. The cost of desalting water is largely the cost of generating the heat, and the evaporator cares not at all where the heat comes from.

Naturally, the owner will want the heat to come from the fuel that is the most economical in his given region and circumstances: coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear.

As a veteran in the atomic power business, I must add that I see no reason to think that the light water reactor will be supplanted as the most satisfactory source of nuclear heat for water desalting in those situations where nuclear is the logical economic choice.

In commenting on the proposed water conversion program, we will make only two recommendations. The first concerns plant construction and the second, research and development.

First, we recommend construction of a large water desalting plant now as the first prototype in a large plant development program. Second, we recommend that the Office of Saline Water continue and expand its research program on methods of converting water. Building the big plant now is, we believe, a crucially important step in the advancement of water conversion technology.

At this point, I would like to make clear that my remarks in favor of the early construction of a large plant relate entirely to the technical requirements of the desalting art. My company is able and willing to work for and with customers for such plants, whether they be from industry or the Government, or from both in some joint arrange

ment.

Consistent with our long time belief in the merits of our system of private enterprise, I would hope that private industry would see fit to build such a plant.

We recommend that this plant be built to a daily capacity of not less than 50 million gallons. Naturally, we recommend that it be built to fill an actual need in or near one of the large communities on an ocean coastline.

What are the reasons for building a full-scale plant at this time?

Well, the primary reason for building it is that this is precisely what the water program needs at this time. We are at the point where we have to learn what only a large-scale effort can teach us. The greatest advance we can make now will come through building the large plant.

Westinghouse is technically ready to build the plant. The Nation wants to see it built. There is very little to be gained by delay. We do not have to wait for some important discovery. There are no major problems of technology to be solved. In our opinion, the time to begin reaping the benefits of existing technology and to break the cost barrier is right now.

Where there is positive effort to improve at each step, every plant that is built in a new art like this should be markedly better than the one before it, both in performance and cost.

Point Loma was considerably better than the first generation plants at Kuwait. When the third generation plants are built, they will be considerably better than Point Loma. Such progress will continue even after we have mastered this new art and are building huge desalting plants routinely, because no technology is static and there is always more to be learned.

We learn by doing. For example, after Point Loma was in operation, the Office of Saline Water began to experiment with the technique of chemically pretreating the seawater before it became a river of hot brine. With an investment of only $22,000 it increased Point Loma's capacity by 40 percent and broke through a temperature barrier that was blocking the path to more economical water conversion. This barrier had been set by the temperature at which severe scaling occurred. Further advances like this are what we need to achieve a quantum advance in the water desalting program.

When the 50-million-gallon-a-day plant is built, a true economic benchmark will be established by which to positively determine the economic trade off between plant size and water cost. Such a benchmark is a necessary yardstick by which we can measure our true progress in applying the knowledge accumulated to date. And when this plant has been built, and when its technical and economic feasibility has been demonstrated in actual operation, we believe that coastal communities in need of water will move to build more such plants which will be even better.

The first plants in a new art are always overdesigned to some extent, to allow for an extra engineering margin. They are heavily instrumented to permit special test procedures. Test data show, step by step, what the materials will do, which are better, and which are worse. On the next plant, the engineering margin is reduced and more effective use is made of the materials.

The obvious but highly important point here is that there is no substitute for hard, practical experience. Building a plant on paper, or as a test model, is one thing; building it to full scale in actual fact is a very different matter. If we had built Point Loma only on paper, there would be no flash evaporator plants operating today at 250 degrees. If we had built it only in a laboratory, I would not be able to make the statement that I am making here today.

There is a clear parallel between the development of atomic power as it stood a decade ago, and the development of water desalting as it stands today. This is true despite the infinitely more difficult problems encountered in building a nuclear reactor. I remember that on July 9, 1953, Mr. Gwilym A. Price, then president of Westinghouse, and Mr. Charles H. Weaver, then manager of our Atomic Power Division, testified on the atomic power program before the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. The land-based prototype of the Nautilus reactor had gone critical some months earlier at the Idaho Test Station, thus demonstrating that the project was feasible. In his testimony, Mr. Weaver stressed, as I have today, the wide gap between making paper studies and actually building a full-scale installation. He described one of the most significant factors in the satisfactory progress of the Nautilus project. "We were given," he said, "a definite goal-a reactor to build instead of studies. And the goal was definite as to time also, with a working schedule established."

Another reason for building a large-scale desalting plant now is related to the probable consequences of carrying forward a water program without such a plant. First, our country will lose its position of technical leadership and, second, we will risk fragmenting our efforts.

We must remember that other countries are conducting strong water desalting programs. If we delay building a large-scale plant, other countries will be delighted. I mean to say that the competitive rivalry that is shaping up for this world market is as clear cut as it is in the supersonic air transport race or in atomic power. One thing is certain: large plants are going to be built and sold-if not in our country, then by some other country.

I know of no other field which, on a worldwide basis, is a subject of greater concern and is receiving more vigorous and enthusiastic attention than that of water resources. It is an area in which international cooperation can be developed and it is imperative that the United States maintain leadership.

Beyond this, I fear the consequences of spending too large a proportion of our effort-time, money, and talent-on small pilot plants and study projects. At the end of such a program, we still would not have the knowledge that comes only with building and operating a large desalting plant. We would not have demonstrated that large plants can produce low-cost water to satisfy a real community need. We certainly would not have carried out the "aggressive and imaginative program" President Johnson has called for.

In our opinion, such a program should include specific projects with firm and definitive goals, including both plant construction and research development. The toughest and at the same time the most meaningful goal will be a target cost for water under specified conditions.

Speaking for Westinghouse, I will state for the record that we are prepared to submit a firm bid on a large desalting plant at this time50 million gallons per day, or 100 million, or 150 million, or larger, if desired. We will do this for a single-purpose desalting plant fueled by coal, oil, gas, or a nuclear reactor. Construction on this plant could begin immediately.

We will submit this bid on a turnkey firm price basis, with warranted capacity, warranted heat rate, warranted power consumption, warranted chemical consumption, warranted purity, and completion date. If the customer desires, we will also operate the water desalting plant for him. This ties down all the factors that go into determining the cost of producing water. In our opinion, the cost of water from a large plant bought on these terms can satisfy real and present needs in certain areas of the world today.

We realize the significance of such a statement as this. We are willing to make it because of our very considerable experience in the research, development, design, construction, and operation of water desalting plants, of power generation equipment, and of nuclear reactors in short, all parts of the total plant.

Our other recommendation on the water conversion program is that the Office of Saline Water continue, intensify, and expand its research program on promising methods of converting water. We must find economic ways of purifying the brackish and mineral charged water