Reading List 11/15/25

Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at Israel refilling a lake with desalinated seawater, South Korean nuclear subs, ways to make titanium cheap, a “new Bell Labs”, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is paywalled, so for full access become a paid subscriber.

Housekeeping items this week:

• IFP has started a new substack, Factory Settings, about the CHIPS Act and how it succeeded.

Sea of Galilee

The inaptly named Sea of Galilee is a large lake in Israel, and the supposed location of many of Jesus’ miracles (including him walking on water). The lake supplies around 10% of Israel’s drinking water, but water levels in the lake have declined in recent years.

To try and prevent declining water levels, Israel is now pumping large amounts of desalinated seawater into the lake. Via the Times of Israel:

The Water Authority has started channeling desalinated water to the Sea of Galilee, marking the first ever attempt anywhere in the world to top up a freshwater lake with processed seawater.

The groundbreaking project, years in the making and a sign of both Israel’s success in converting previously unusable water into a vital resource and the rapidly dropping water levels in the country’s largest freshwater reservoir, was quietly inaugurated on October 23.

The desalinated water enters the Sea of Galilee via the seasonal Tsalmon Stream, entering at the Ein Ravid spring, some four kilometers (2.5 miles) northwest of what is Israel’s emergency drinking source.

Firas Talhami, who is in charge of the rehabilitation of water sources in northern Israel for the Water Authority, told The Times of Israel that he expected the project to raise the lake’s level by around 0.5 centimeters (0.2 inches) per month.

The move has also reactivated the previously dried-out spring, allowing visitors to once again paddle down the Tsalmon, which now flows with desalinated water.

Iran drought

Israel isn’t the only middle eastern country facing water problems. The capital of Iran, Tehran, is facing an acute water shortage. This crisis has been brewing for months, and has now gotten so bad that the city may become “uninhabitable” if the current drought continues. Via Reuters:

President Masoud Pezeshkian has cautioned that if rainfall does not