The fifth stage was from East of Sweetwater dam (to be constructed) to Grassland Canyon Lake (to be made). The sixth stage is big! The aqueduct travels from South of Lubbock, Texas to the Guadaloupe Mountains in New Mexico, a distance of 110 miles.
The elevation at the Grasslands Canyon lake will top out at 2800 feet with maximum water level at 2790 feet. The White Oaks Canyon dam is 400 feet high and will top out at 5000 feet with a maximum water level at 4950 feet. The total lift of the water in stage 6 is (4950 – 2790 + 110×2.2) feet = 2402 ft. To lift 25,000 cubic feet per second 2402 feet requires fifty-three 100 MW LFTR nuclear reactors, thirteen on the Texas Grid and forty on the Western national grid. The White oaks Canyon Lake will contain about 130,000 Acre-ft of water when full, about three days of storage. For 5 hours per day these fifty-three reactors used in this stage can provide 5.3 GW of peak power to the grid instead of pumping water, thus acting as a virtual hydroelectric peak power storage. 1.3 GW of this will be used by the Texas Power Grid, and 4.0 GW by the Western U.S. Power grid, and they have to be coordinated. One alternative is that this grid can be connected to either the Texas grid or the Western Grid dependent on who needs the peak power. The White Oaks dam will look like this:
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 