IEEE Spectrum August, 2009 - 8

825.5 tEraflops

measured processing power of the new No. 3 supercomputer in the world,
JugENE. the computer and its sister, 10th-ranked Juropa, both housed at
forschungszentrum Jülich, in germany, were the only two non-u.s.-based machines to make it into the new top 10 list.

Abu‑Jaber, a geology professor
the quantity is "in excess of
Elias Salameh, a professor at
what we need for blending."
Jordan University, in Amman, has
at Yarmouk University, in Irbid,
been monitoring the elevated alpha‑ Jordan, sees it, the "availability
Judging by Vengosh's data,
this doesn't appear to be the case.
particle activity in Disi water. His
of water takes precedence over
radioactivity." Water‑stressed
Dilution would double the total
data is unpublished, because the
volume of water, which means that presence of radium in groundwater countries are frequently forced
the Disi water's radiation can be
is just not news, he says. In the
into difficult, or at least expensive,
no more than double the desired
United States, for example, New
choices. In Libya, a massive
project known as the Great Man‑
threshold in order to comply
Jersey has relied on water from a
radium‑tainted aquifer for many
with international benchmarks.
Made River delivers fossil water
Very few of the wells tested by
years. He points out that should
from the Sahara Desert and
Vengosh and his colleagues met
blending fail to neutralize the
distributes it along entirely new
water, the ministry can treat it
that criterion. Relying on blending
waterways, while Saudi Arabia
using reverse osmosis, by forcing
would limit the amount of usable
has plowed money into becoming
water in the aquifer and curtail the
the world's largest producer of
life span of the pipeline project-or
desalinated seawater.
expose the population of Amman
Amman, for its part, is under‑
to heightened levels of radium.
going a population boom, spurred
Aqaba, Jordan's small port city,
by an influx of an estimated
million immigrants from Iraq.
has had an instructive experience
with Disi water. The city has been
"The Disi project will not solve
pumping 15 million cubic meters
the problem of water in Jordan,"
of water from Disi each year to a
says Kurdi, the project's leader.
collection reservoir outside Aqaba.
"It will just maintain the status
Samples taken at the wells come
quo." With any luck, the project
desert bloom: a well in the Disi
out radioactive. But without any
will at least enable the govern‑
aquifer near aqaba, in the south,
diluting or further treatment of
ment of Jordan to increase each
provides water for agriculture.
the isotopes, the water is somehow photo: avner vengosh
person's share of the kingdom's
pristine by the time it reaches the
water, to meet what it considers to
city, according to Aqaba's utility.
the water through a membrane
be the daily demand of 120 liters
Imad Zureikat, the Aqaba
that prevents the passage of
per person per day. (Abu Dhabi
radium. Ion‑exchange purification, residents, by contrast, go through
Water Co.'s general manager,
maintains that Aqaba's water is
in which the water is fed through
an average of 550 L per day.)
tested at several international
columns of porous materials
By early 2013, Kurdi estimates
laboratories and adheres to
whose pores work as capture sites
the water should be flowing to
international standards. "My
for the radium, is another option.
Amman. The aquifer will be
kids are drinking water from
"We can't choose another land,
pumped for about 25 years, he
the tap," Zureikat says. "We
another country, so we have to do
says, until a subsequent water
don't play with people's health.
our best," Salameh says.
project is in place. That project,
known as the Red‑Dead Canal,
Everywhere you go in Jordan,
Of course, any purification
you can drink from the tap."
treatment would come at a price.
would send water north from
The locations and depth of the
Haddadin, the former water
the Red Sea, with half of the
wells likely play a role in Aqaba's
minister, studied the cost of
water replenishing the shrinking
good fortune [see "Jordan's Red
the Disi project, along with the
Dead Sea and the other half to be
Sea Desalination Plan," IEEE
collection and treatment of its
desalinated for consumption.
Spectrum, July 2009]. Near Aqaba,
wastewater, and concluded the
To get within sight of the
at the southern tip of Jordan, the
cost of water service would reach
ballyhooed canal, Jordan must first
aquifer lies closer to the surface.
10 percent of the income of the
find a way to keep its population-
Vengosh's samples from these shal‑ average Amman resident. Adding
and economy-humming along
lower wells showed much more
a treatment facility, and the needed for the decades the country
variability in their radium content.
disposal of radioactive waste,
will need to build it. "We are
So cautiously choosing well sites
would drive the cost up even more.
going to implement this project,
may indeed bring the water min‑
Whatever the price, Jordan
insha'Allah, God willing, as we
istry within sight of international
will almost certainly find a way
say," Kurdi says. "Because this is
what we need."
standards for the Amman project.
to use the Disi water. As Nizar
-Sandra Upson
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