The Transcontinental Aqueduct, Leg 2: Aquilla lake to Brad reservoir (to be built), a distance of 100 miles.

The first stage of the aqueduct was from the Mississippi river diversion to Lake Aquilla:

The elevation at this lake is 548 feet. From here the aqueduct goes NW to 25 miles East of Breckenridge. It crosses the Brazos river and then goes through the Squaw Creek reservoir. This reservoir is built to provide cooling water for a nuclear power plant. The aqueduct will provide extra water in case of extreme drought. The end of Stage 2 is a dam, located just south of the Brad Cemetery on U.S. route 180, 25 miles East of Breckenridge. The dam, yet to be built will top out at 1380 feet with maximum water level at 1370 feet. The total lift of the water in stage 2 is (1370 – 548 + 100×2.2) feet = 1062 ft. To lift 26,500 cubic feet per second 1062 feet requires twenty-three 100 MW LFTR nuclear reactors. Lake Brad will contain about 90,000 Acre-ft when full, about two day’s worth of storage. For 5 hours per day these 23 reactors can provide 2.3 GW of peak power to the grid. (The power can also be provided by wind power, during which time the LFTR’s can make hydrogen for extra peak power storage).

Published by

lenbilen

Retired engineer, graduated from Chalmers Technical University a long time ago with a degree in Technical Physics. Career in Aerospace, Analytical Chemistry, computer chip manufacturing and finally adjunct faculty at Pennsylvania State University, taught just one course in Computer Engineering, the Capstone Course.

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