Word: aec
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...promising peaceful use of nuclear energy. It calls for exploding small atomic bombs deep beneath the earth's surface to release trillions of cubic feet of natural gas trapped in subterranean rock formations. Now, after the latest in a series of test explosions in New Mexico and Colorado, AEC officials may be forced to acknowledge what some scientists predicted from the start: nuclear blasting for gas is neither economical nor practical...
Last May, in an operation named Project Rio Blanco, the AEC exploded three 30-kiloton devices that had been placed about 450 ft. apart in a vertical tube more than a mile underground near the hamlet of Meeker in western Colorado. The goal was to crack the surrounding sandstone and create a huge cavern into which the escaping gas could seep. But when the AEC and its private-industry collaborator. CER Geonuclear Corp. of Las Vegas, began test drilling at the site after the explosions, they made an embarrassing discovery. The blasts had apparently created three separate gas-filled caverns...
...atomic explosions may damage buildings on the surface, trigger earthquakes and leave behind dangerous radiation. The General Accounting Office recently noted that nuclear recovery of gas could be costlier than its proponents originally thought; the cracks created in the sandstone by the A-bombs may close faster than the AEC'S experts had predicted, limiting the amount of gas that could escape. In addition, the GAO touched on a subject worrying many oil companies. The natural gas deposits lie under much of the nation's reserves of shale, from which the companies hope some day to extract large...
WASTES. After the nuclear fuel is used, the remaining liquid wastes are not only radioactive but long-lived. Indeed, radioisotopes of plutonium 239 will remain lethal for at least 250,000 years. The AEC is sure that it can handle the problem by solidifying the wastes (so that they cannot enter the environment) and then keeping them under surveillance until a safe storage technique is developed. But, says Physicist Henry Kendall, "the legacy to future generations very much disturbs...
Critics also charge that the AEC, by both regulating and promoting nuclear power, is caught in a conflict of interest. That problem may be resolved by a Nixon Administration bill to split the AEC into two parts. One would concentrate exclusively on regulating safety standards. The other would form the bulk of a new Energy Research and Development Administration to foster development of all sources of energy...