Word: mw
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
William Parish is bullish on energy -- literally. Ten months ago, the former California real estate lawyer opened the first commercial plant designed to produce electricity by burning cattle dung. Situated near El Centro, Calif., the Mesquite Lake Resource Recovery Project generates 17.5 MW per hr. -- enough to power 15,000 homes -- and sells most of it under a 30-year contract to Southern California Edison...
...four huge RBMK-1000 reactors at Chernobyl were mighty but in many ways outdated machines. "It's a crude technology," said a senior Administration official. "They haven't changed it in 30 years." Although capable of producing 1,000 MW of power (vs. 850 MW for a typical U.S. nuclear generator), the Chernobyl unit had some design features dating back to the atomic pile that Enrico Fermi used in 1942 to create the world's first chain reaction at the University of Chicago's Stagg Field. Both systems employed graphite to moderate the nuclear reaction. Most U.S. units regulate with...
SHOREHAM. Overlooking the sound on the North Shore of New York's Long Island, this 1,100-MW plant was supposed to cost $241 million when it was started in 1965 and was expected to go on line in 1975. Now nearly a decade behind schedule, the plant will cost at least $4 billion, or 15 times the original estimate, and could run the Long Island Lighting Co. (Lilco) even more before it produces any electricity. The utility last year had a continuing battle with Suffolk County officials over the approval of evacuation plans in case of an accident...
MIDLAND. Conceived as a cooperative venture that would supply Michigan's Consumers Power Co. with electricity and a neighboring Dow Chemical plant with steam, the two-unit, 1,300-MW project on Michigan's Tittabawassee River was launched in 1969. It then carried a $267 million price tag. The problem-plagued development is currently nine years behind schedule and egregiously over budget. Company officials say that construction, now 85% complete, has al ready cost $3.4 billion...
Compared with coal burners, nuclear power plants generate little waste. A 1,000-MW coal-fired facility produces 30 lbs. of ash per sec., which comes to 423,040 tons a year, or enough to fill 2,568 trailer trucks. The waste from a nuclear plant of the same size would fit into a refrigerator...