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The feasibility of rehabilitating an existing power house at the Enloe Dam in Washington was evaluated with consideration of expected power production, social and environmental impacts, regulatory aspects, technical requirements, financing, costs, and market potential. This assessment showed that rebuilding the existing powerhouse and appurtenant facilities is technically feasible. Rebuilding the existing turbines and generators proved to be the most desirable of three alternatives considered. The following four factors lead to this conclusion: rebuilding the old equipment is less costly than installing new turbines and generators; no major structural changes to the powerhouse would be required; rebuilding the turbines with increased flow capacity made the rebuilding alternative competitive with new equipment from an energy production standpoint; and rebuilding is compatible with the Enloe site's recent addition to the National Register of Historic Places.

The United States Department of Energy’s Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) Fuel Development and Qualification Program will be irradiating eight separate tri-isotopic (TRISO) particle fuel (in compact form) experiments in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) located at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). These irradiations and fuel development are being accomplished to support development of the next generation reactors in the United States. The ATR has a long history of irradiation testing in support of reactor development and the INL has been designated as the United States Department of Energy’s lead laboratory for nuclear energy development. These AGR fuel experiments will be irradiated over the next ten years to demonstrate and qualify new particle fuel for use in high temperature gas reactors. The experiments, which will each consist of six separate capsules, will be irradiated in an inert sweep gas atmosphere with individual on-line temperature monitoring and control for each capsule. The swept gas will also have on-line fission product monitoring to track performance of the fuel in each individual capsule during irradiation. The design of the first experiment (designated AGR-1) was completed in 2005, and the fabrication and assembly of the test train as well as the support systems and fission product monitoring system that monitor and control the experiment during irradiation were completed in September 2006. The experiment was inserted in the ATR in December 2006, and is serving as a shakedown test of the multi-capsule experiment design that will be used in the subsequent irradiations as well as a test of the early variants of the fuel produced under this program. The experiment test train as well as the monitoring, control, and data collection systems are discussed and the status of the experiment is provided.

During Pleistocene time, Coal Valley, Nevada, was situated between a pluvial climatic zone to the north and a non-pluvial climactic zone to the south. The Coal Lake section represents {dollar}>{dollar}20,000 years of continuous deposition, recording a saline lake phase (Early Coal Lake) present since at least 32,000 BP, evolving to a freshwater lake (Coal Lake Intermediate) {dollar}\sim{dollar}28,000 BP. Maximum lake development (290 km{dollar}\sp2{dollar} in area) was within 2000 years of {dollar}\sim{dollar}20,000 BP, and was probably persistent through deglaciation. Ostracode ecology suggests that water salinity varied little through time, which may be indicative of consistently low ambient temperatures, high precipitation levels, and/or high basin seepage rates throughout the life of the lake. Coal Lake probably experienced more direct control by regional groundwater hydrology than by climate. The revised paleohydrologic index of Coal Valley is (Z{dollar}\sb{\rm cv}{dollar} = 0.11, compared to the previous value of 0.07, suggesting that the water balance of Coal Lake was higher than previously thought.

Research on the human dimensions of climate change (HDCC) in the Canadian Arctic has expanded so rapidly over the past decade that we do not have a clear grasp of the current state of knowledge or research gaps. This lack of clarity has implications for duplication of climate policy and research, and it has been identified as a problem by communities, scientists, policy makers, and northern organizations. Our review of current knowledge about the HDCC in Nunavut, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut indicates that the effects of climate change on subsistence harvesting and other land-based activities and the determinants of vulnerability and adaptation to such changes are well understood. However, the effects of climate change on health are less known. In the nascent research on this topic, studies on food security and personal safety dominate, and little peer-reviewed scholarship focuses on the business and economic sector. Published research shows a strong bias toward case studies in smaller communities, especially communities in Nunavut. Such studies have focused primarily on negative impacts of climate change, present-day vulnerabilities, and adaptive capacity, but studies proposing opportunities for adaptation intervention are beginning to emerge. While documenting the serious risks posed by climate change, they also highlight the adaptability of northern populations and the effects of economic-political stresses on vulnerability to changing climate. We note the absence of studies that examine how Northerners can benefit from new opportunities that may arise from climate change, or assess how the interaction of future climatic and socio-economic changes (specifically, resource development and enhanced shipping) will affect their experience of and response to climate change, or discuss the broader determinants of vulnerability and adaptation.

The completion of the 5-MW Pilot Power Plant at the Raft River Geothermal Test Site, modification of the similar, binary cycle Prototype Power Plant, and the water treatment program that studies environmentally safe ways to inhibit corrosion and scaling in geothermal power plants and investigates corrosion resistant materials are summarized. Studies of binary geothermal cycles using mixed hydrocarbon working fluids are described as part of the continuing search for ways to produce low-cost electricity from moderate-temperature geothermal fluids. Progress is reported on studies of direct contact heat exchanger concepts, heat rejection systems, and primary heat exchangers with augmentation. As part of the now-ended series of aquaculture experiments, an unsuccessful attempt to incubate common carp embryos in geothermal waters is reported. An experiment in revegetating disturbed land at Raft River is mentioned and progress on DOE's new User Coupled Confirmation Drilling Program is described. An estimate is presented of the amount of hydrothermal energy that could be produced by the year 2000, with and without Federal assistance, for electric generation and direct applications such as industrial process heat. Progress is reported on the Marketing Assistance Program, through which technical information and assistance is provided potential users and developers of geothermal resources.more » Also reported is progress in DOE's Program Opportunity Notice (PON) Program demonstration projects and Program Research and Development Announcement (PRDA) Program study projects.« less

This Essay analyzes how the New England states' planning processes are envisioning revitalized local, state, and regional food systems. This Essay has five parts. First, it begins with examining compelling reasons for promoting more sustainable food systems based on national and global trends, and identifies strategies for promoting regional food systems approaches with a brief introduction to the major influences on the national and New England food system. Second, it describes the states' planning efforts and their enabling legislation or source of authority. The Essay then introduces the New England Food Vision 2060 (the Vision) an emerging discussion of food system possibilities that models potential food production options for the region based on different food based scenarios. The Vision is not a plan or prescription for each state, but rather serves to generate critical thought regarding the direction and aspirations for regional food systems. Likewise, given the goal to have ongoing updates of the Vision, this project will likewise be influenced by individual state plans and strategies. Thus, the Vision represents an opportunity for continuous dynamic interchange among those committed to designing and developing a New England food system Learning Action Network. By applying “collective impact†strategies to food system advancement, the network will be poised to advance regional food justice, food policy access, and system sustainability (i.e., good food). Next, the Essay analyzes the key policy challenges that are presented by a desire for a more self-sufficient regional food system, such as local ordinances, land use and zoning laws, institutional procurement policy, and food access issues. This section offers a brief overview of how the Federal commerce clause (including the dormant commerce clause), and compact clause influence the scope of local, state, and regional policy. Finally, the paper concludes by identifying how the Vision can assist in identifying legal issues that researchers and ...

One hundred and sixteen papers are included. One was abstracted previously. Separate entries were prepared for the remaining papers. (MHR)

Three plant species included among the Nevada Threatened or Endangered Flora of the Federal Register list of July 1, 1975, were omitted from the recent reports dealing with these groups of plants in central-southern Nevada. Two of the species, Ephedra funerea and Mirabilis pudica, were not included because they are both widely distributed and locally common in southern Nevada and were understood (unofficially) to be no longer considered candidates for either an Endangered or Threatened status. The third species, Machaeranthera ammophila, is now included with M. arida, an uncommon species of central and eastern Mojave Desert of southern California (to southern Nevada, Arizona, and Sonora), and is therefore no longer a candidate for the status of Threatened Species in Nevada.

In 1980 US electric utilities reported purchasng 594 million tons of coal, 408.5 million barrels of oil and 3568.7 billion ft/sup 3/ of gas. As compared with 1979 purchases, coal rose 6.7%, oil decreased 20.9%, and gas increased for the fourth year in a row. This volume presents tabulated and graphic data on the cost and quality of fossil fuel receipts to US electric utilities plants with a combined capacity of 25 MW or greater. Information is included on fuel origin and destination, fuel types, and sulfur content, plant types, capacity, and flue gas desulfurization method used, and fuel costs. (LCL)

In a high wind penetration future, transmission must be designed to integrate groups of new wind farms with a high capacity inter-regional ``backbone" transmission system. A design process is described which begins by identifying feasible sites for future wind farms, identifies an optimal set of those wind farms for a specified future, and designs a reliable low-cost ``resource to backbone" collector transmission network to connect each individual wind farm to the backbone transmission network. A model of the transmission and generation system in the state of Iowa is used to test these methods, and to make observations about the nature of these resource to backbone networks.