Word: melun
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...runaway train had had an uneventful trip along the 35-mile commuter line from Melun to Paris until the brakes failed just outside the Gare de Lyon, a major commuter hub. Firemen, doctors and paramedics worked for 20 hours to save the injured and retrieve the dead. "I tried to lift someone up by the shoulders," said a young fireman. "His torso came off in my arms." Said Mayor Jacques Chirac after visiting the scene: "It is incomprehensible...
...energy that heats the homes of the Paris suburb of Melun (pop. 42,000) comes from a highly unusual source: a natural underground reservoir of hot brackish water located more than a mile underneath the town. French engineers boast that the system for tapping geothermal energy is the first of its kind. What makes it unique, they say, is the fact that the water is piped back into the ground for reheating, which means that Melun's subterranean furnace could keep working almost indefinitely...
...Melun's underground reservoir contains hot (about 160° F.) but not boiling water. To get at it, French Engineer Pierre Maugis, 65, drilled a 5,850-ft. hole, which allows the water to escape to the surface. There, it is passed through a radiator-like device called a heat exchanger, which heats water from the city's regular water supply. The temperature of the city water is raised from about 50° F. to 149° F., hot enough to use in bathtubs or sinks filled with dirty dishes. The water is also sent through floor pipes...
Systems like Melun's are harder on the municipal pocketbook than the local ecology; they require a large initial investment. In addition to the high cost of the drilling, Melun's houses must be particularly well insulated to reduce heat losses. But Maugis's son Francois, 33, who has largely taken over the test project since his father suffered a stroke, is convinced that cost is not a serious obstacle. Depending on its location, he says, the system could be less expensive over the long haul than those based on other fuels...
...French government apparently agrees. Encouraged by the success of the Melun project, Industry and Research Minister Michel d'Ornano is now asking Parliament to allocate $1.5 million for more geothermal well-drilling. Says he: "The increase in the cost of oil and the birth of new techniques oblige us to consider the energy potential of our underground wealth...