Posted on 09/30/2020 6:12:04 PM PDT by blueplum
In my area, 5 coal power plants that I know of have recently been scheduled for shutdown. The operators blame existing regs for causing costs to be too high to compete. (I’d guess their main competitor is natural gas.)
So far as I know, there are no plans to rebuild w/ natural gas powered plants on the present sites. I’d have thought the cooling lakes (in 4 of 5 cases) might at least be useful. (One cools mainly with water from the Ohio River, IIRC.)
This is going to be a hard hit for several area communities. The jobs at those plants are quite good paying jobs. Then, there will also be the loss to the mines that feed those plants.
A relatively minor loss, but significant to those who benefit from it, will be the reduction of fish growth rates in those lakes. Baldwin Lake in particular is a premium spot to go catfish angling, as the fish grow year-round. As a bonus, that lake’s contaminant’s levels are exceptionally low — mercury in particular is much lower than in some other seemingly much more pristine lakes in the region. While it’s been a while since I’ve been up there, and I don’t think the really big cats taste as good, a 10 lb. blue cat from Baldwin Lake tastes fine, and is relatively safe fare. I should probably hit Baldwin again in the next year or two, even tho’ it’s a bit of a drive...
https://www.ifishillinois.org/ssr/00195.pdf
l8r
BeauBo wrote:
“Three Gorges Dam survived this year’s once in a century heavy monsoon rains/flooding. The annual peak is the last week in July/first week in August, and the end is about now.”
Two key points:
1. “The type of design (gravity dam) of Three Gorges Dam is inherently safe, unless there is some massive construction defects, and/or some massive overtopping (or running around the sides) from floods greater than the height of the dam, that might massively erode away the soil on the downstream side.”
2, “The Government there is firmly committed to releasing floodwaters downstream, rather than risking the dam. They sure did it this year, despite massive crop losses, and millions of people displaced.”
“This year’s flooding was catastrophic, but the dam is not likely to see another test like that for many years. It was getting hairy, but the risk seems to have passed.”
Yes. The main concern with gravity dams is they sit atop bedrock, held in place by sheer mass weight and if at max capacity the hydraulic pressures caused leaks to form under the dam between it and the bedrock, these could scour out enough bedrock to undermine a section of the dam.
If this has started it would be catastrophic and also hard to see. The only indicator would be unusual currents in areas downstream away from the main discharge. If in those areas of the discharge it would not be visible at all. I believe this is the most likely mode should this dam fail rather than over topping. Thanks for the good info.
SS1
“Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad.”
So basically the US could shut down completely and cut it’s “carbon” emissions to zero and it would have little effect on the world given that China (and India) are continuing to add fossil-based generating capacity, right?
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