Word: aec
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...lawsuit that, if successful, could force the Atomic Energy Commission to shut down most of the nuclear power plants in the country and halt any further construction until a dispute over the safety of such plants can be resolved. The suit demands that nuclear plants be shut until the AEC can give verified assurances that back-up systems, designed to cool off an overheating reactor core if the primary system breaks down, will work reliably...
...AEC spokesmen estimated yesterday that 150 to 200 radioactive packages leave Logan airport a day. About 300 planes depart from Logan daily...
...major hitch to coal-gasification schemes is cost; all the heating and processing must take place in expensive aboveground plants. But Physicist Glenn C. Werth and his colleagues at the AEC's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California have proposed a less expensive alternative. They believe that it may be possible to create methane in the earth by forcing oxygen and water into fractures created with the help of explosives in coal seams. The cost, they figure, would be between 400 and 600 per 1,000 cu. ft., less than the price of liquefied natural gas now delivered from overseas...
...greater challenge to scientists lies in finding ways of utilizing the earth's internal heat in the vast areas that are relatively barren of subterranean water. One proposal, under test by the AEC's Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, involves sinking two side-by-side holes deep into the earth until they reach hot basement rock (approximately 1,000° F.). Then by pumping cold water into one hole, the scientists hope to extract steam from the other. Project Director Morton Smith reports that test borings to a depth of only 2,500 ft. (v. the final goal...
Although the AEC'S assurance has not slowed the heated objections of environmentalists and local politicians, the chances of stopping the next two blasts are slim. But opponents are now trying to ensure that Wagon Wheel's five bombs sound the death rattle of the nuclear-drilling program. The idea of 140 more subterranean nuclear explosions is "absolutely out of the question," says U.S. Senator Floyd Haskell of Colorado, who along with others is concerned about triggering earthquakes. "I just don't know what would happen seismically after you've wracked the earth 140 times," says...