After this, they need to install enough storage tanks to hold a year’s supply, and schedule filling them in the summer.
Tell, them, not me. There are probably reasons why it isn’t done. The town has been there for over a hundred years. I think part of the problem might be the “gelling” of diesel at low winter temps. I’m no engineer, so don’t quote me.
They do have that much storage and they normally do get filled in the summer via barges. This year, the sea ice has come early while at the same time they made their orders later than normal as some of the prices were trending down.
Just read another piece that caused this fuel problem.
Nome is in need of diesel and unleaded gasoline after a fall fuel delivery by barge was delayed by a storm that swept Western Alaska. By the time the weather had improved, Nome was iced in and a barge delivery was impossible.
http://www.adn.com/2012/01/09/2253848/thickening-ice-raises-worries.html
January 9th, 2012 11:10 PM
A Coast Guard spokesman said Monday that an icebreaker and a fuel tanker are encountering “some really dynamic ice” that is slowing the mission and sometimes forcing both vessels to come to a complete stop.
The plan was for the two ships to deliver fuel to Nome on Monday but because of the icy conditions, that arrival date is off. Coast Guard officials are not saying when they expect the vessels to arrive but it could be later this week.
“The dynamics of things make it a pretty intense transit,” Cmdr. Greg Tlapa, the executive officer of the Healy, told The Associated Press by satellite phone Monday afternoon as the icebreaker was about 111 miles south-southwest of Nome.
He described conditions outside the Healy’s bridge much like the surface of the moon: nearly 100 percent snow coverage, occasional ridging and “lots of rubble all around.”
The Healy is trying to keep the Renda 0.3 miles behind the Coast Guard cutter as it breaks through 3 feet of ice. But the ice conditions are changing constantly and when they reach heavier ice, the path is closing between the two ships.
Bout time the nuclear technology used in naval powerplants got reconfigured as generators for these outa the way places. Makes too much sense.