More than three hundred homes are being built in a northwest Chicago suburb that demonstrate the ''whole house'' design concept. The homes cost approximately the same as competitive houses of the same size but use approximately 50% less energy for heating and cooling.

At the end of 2002, the Experimental Breeder Reactor Two (EBR-II) facility became a U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) permitted site, and the RCRA permit1 compelled further treatment of the residual sodium in order to convert it into a less reactive chemical form and remove the by-products from the facility, so that a state of RCRA 'closure' for the facility may be achieved (42 U.S.C. 6901-6992k, 2002). In response to this regulatory driver, and in recognition of project budgetary and safety constraints, it was decided to treat the residual sodium in the EBR-II primary and secondary sodium systems using a process known as 'carbonation.' In early EBR-II post-operation documentation, this process is also called 'passivation.' In the carbonation process (Sherman and Henslee, 2005), the system containing residual sodium is flushed with humidified carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}). The water vapor in the flush gas reacts with residual sodium to form sodium hydroxide (NaOH), and the CO{sub 2} in the flush gas reacts with the newly formed NaOH to make sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO{sub 3}). Hydrogen gas (H{sub 2}) is produced as a by-product. The chemical reactions occur at the exposed surface of the residual sodium. The NaHCO{sub 3} layer that …

Case study of an energy-efficient Habitat for Humanity house that uses 30% less energy than conventional residential construction. The project was part of the Jimmy Carter Work Project in rural Appalachia in 1997.