This study, sponsored by the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration, addresses the environmental implications of extraction of coal in North Dakota. These implications are supported by details of the geologic and historical background of the area of focus, the lignite resources in the Fort Union coalfield portion. The particular concentration is on the four-county area of Mercer, Dunn, McLean, and Oliver where substantial coal reserves exist and a potential gasification plant site has been identified. The purposes of this extensive study are to identify the land use and environmental problems and issues associated with extraction; to provide a base of information for assessing the impacts of various levels of extraction; to examine the economics and feasibility of reclamation; and to identify research that needs to be undertaken to evaluate and to improve reclamation practices. The study also includes a description of the physical and chemical soil characteristics and hydrological and climatic factors entailed in extraction, revegetation, and reclamation procedures.

In order to provide background for introduction of a Geothermal Element into the General Plan of the County of Imperial, California, studies were conducted on resource evaluation, engineering development, environmental impact, economics, regulation, and so forth. This document is a collection of reviews of engineering matters pertinent to the County's plan. Briefly, the contents include discussions of drilling practice, costs, and land requirements. Brief notes on reinjection and on fluid transmission follow. The section on power plants attempts to give scaling relationships for land area, costs, and performance, according to size and reservoir temperature. The problem of cooling power plants is important, particularly in an arid agricultural area. Cooling requirements, water availability, and water suitability are discussed in turn. The question of the interactions of the hydrologic cycle, withdrawals for cooling, and the Salton Sea is covered in a separate EQL document. Finally, there are sections devoted to nonelectrical uses for the geothermal resources, including production of fresh water and chemicals. The direct uses for geothermal heat are not included.

The selection and design criteria for a cold-crucible melting system for fuel hull consolidation are defined. Appraisals of the cold-crucible processes that are available are presented. (LK)

This is the first in a series of reports evaluating environmental control technologies applicable to the coal-to-electricity process. The technologies are described and evaluated from an engineering and cost perspective based upon the best available information obtained from utility experience and development work in progress. Environmental control regulations and the health effects of pollutants are also reviewed. Emphasis is placed primarily upon technologies that are now in use. For SO/sub 2/ control, these include the use of low sulfur coal, cleaned coal, or flue-gas desulfurization systems. Electrostatic precipitators and fabric filters used for the control of particulate matter are analyzed, and combustion modifications for NO/sub x/ control are described. In each area, advanced technologies still in the development stage are described briefly and evaluated on the basis of current knowledge. Fluidized bed-combustion (FBC) is a near-term technology that is discussed extensively in the report. The potential for control of SO/sub 2/ and NO/sub x/ emissions by use of FBC is analyzed, as are the resulting solid waste disposal problems, cost estimates, and its potential applicability to electric utility systems.

The development of a general technique of analyzing well tests with variable flow rates is reported. The variable flow is approximated by a series of sequential straight line segments of arbitrary length and slope. (MHR)

This is the first in a series of reports evaluating environmental control technologies applicable to the coal-to-electricity process. The technologies are described and evaluated from an engineering and cost perspective based upon the best available information obtained from utility experience and development work in progress. Environmental control regulations and the health effects of pollutants are also reviewed. Emphasis is placed primarily upon technologies that are now in use. For SO/sub 2/ control, these include the use of low sulfur coal, cleaned coal, or flue-gas desulfurization systems. Electrostatic precipitators and fabric filters used for the control of particulate matter are analyzed, and combustion modifications for NO/sub x/ control are described. In each area, advanced technologies still in the development stage are described briefly and evaluated on the basis of current knowledge. Fluidized-bed combustion (FBC) is a near-term technology that is discussed extensively in the report. The potential for control of SO/sub 2/ and NO/sub x/ emissions by use of FBC is analyzed, as are the resulting solid waste disposal problems, cost estimates, and its potential applicability to electric utility systems. Volume II presents the detailed technology analyses complete with reference citations. This same material is given in condensed form in Volume …

The objective of this project has been the production of a data library suitable for calculating the buildup of fission product nuclides during the operation of a thermal power reactor. This has been accomplished by reducing the fission product data from the fourth version of the national reference nuclear data base--ENDF/B into a series of linearized decay chains and calculating the effective yields and cross sections of the relevant nuclides. Two versions of the fission product library have been prepared: an 84 chain master library and a reduced 12 chain library, both of which can be used as input for the computer program CINDER. A users manual for an upgraded version of the burnup program CINDER (renamed EPRI-CINDER) is presented.

The Appalachian region has many rural areas of limited accessibility. To improve the accessibility of the rural carless (poor, elderly, young, infirm) public transportation has often been suggested. The objective of the research is to develop a low-cost methodology for determining latent demand for public transportation in rural areas, i.e., to develop a data base of key socio-economic, highway network, and geographic variables which can be used to estimate latent demand along possible rural-transit routes. Data were collected on existing rural-transit operations in Planning Region VI of West Virginia (Monongalia, Taylor, Marion, Harrison, Doddridge, and Preston counties) by means of an on-off survey and an on-board questionnaire survey. Using these as indicators of demand, this information will be related to census data for the affected region to determine if a simplified modeling approach to estimate rural public transportation demand is feasible.

Photograph used for a story in the Oklahoma Times newspaper. Caption: "Balls of similar design and color can give a holiday tree a more " tailored," or "expensive" look."

The test facilities (the geothermal drilling vessel and the geothermal drill-bit seal tester) were completed and de-bugged, and the first tests were run on full-scale research drill bits and drill-bit seals. In addition, more materials information was gathered, and a number of additional seals of high-temperature elastomer materials were obtained for testing. Maurer Engineering has also been active in the design and procurement of candidate high-temperature drill-bit seals for testing, and has done a literature and patent search on the problem of drill-bit insert retention. Reed Tool Co. has cooperated in the fabrication of drill bits for testing, and has offered consultation on certain seal designs.

Photograph used for a story in the Oklahoma Times newspaper. Caption: "A food carousel that can serve up to 600 persons an hour has been installed in the cafeteria at South Community Hospital-possibly the only one used in a hospital in the United States."

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "One panel member responsible for such program design, Paul Houston, said commitments to programs for the arts unusually happen "by accident or blind luck," or result from outside pressure and internal crisis."

Photograph used for a story in the Oklahoma Times newspaper. Caption: "Tom Case, Oklahoma Department of Transportation Material Lab Center, drills out concrete core sample from a cracked pier of the collapsed South Canadian River Bridge on U. S. 75 near Calvin."

Photograph used for a story in the Oklahoma Times newspaper. Caption: "Bill Jarvis, Seminole, President of Oklahoma Farm Bureau."

Caption: "Librarian Donna Morris smiles as she readies a myriad of discount coupons for the new exchange service."

Photograph of the Masonic Building (located at Ave H & Hwy 281) in Marble Falls, Texas.

A theoretical model of the hydrolysis of microcline by a hydrothermal solution has been determined for a closed system at constant temperature. Hypothetical solution compositions and temperatures were chosen to match the known geothermal system at Roosevelt Hot Springs, Utah. The calculated reaction paths indicate that the overall reaction process is an exchange of potassium from the reactant mineral, microcline, for hydrogen from the solution. Aluminum is nearly conserved among solid phases. The amount of microcline reacted per kilogram of solution before overall equilibrium is reached is a function of temperature and inituial solution pH. Since the system is closed and at constant temperature natural conditions are not reproduced well enough to apply the model as a geothermometer. The reaction paths suggest qualitative models of alteration mineral zoning patterns that are similar to zoning at Roosevelt Hot Springs, Utah; Steamboat Springs, Nevada, and Butte, Montana. The models presented view alteration zoning as a function of temperature and pH gradients within homogeneous host rocks where microcline and quartz are abundant.

This study analyzes the potential economic impact of policies which would contain or halt the introduction of additional nuclear electricity plants as well as the operation of currently existing nuclear plants. First a Base Case set of energy and economic projections for 1985 is estimated under the assumption that by 1985 174.2 gigawatts of nuclear electric capacity will be available to the economy. Then the impacts of four potential nuclear policies on these Base Case economic and energy projections are estimated. Two of the four nuclear policies would decrease the expected 1975 to 1985 growth rate of nuclear capacity expansion, one would keep nuclear capacity in 1985 at the present 36.1 gigawatt amount, and one would phase out all nuclear capacity by 1985.

The test facilities (the geothermal drilling vessel and the geothermal drill-bit seal tester) were completed and de-bugged, and the first tests were run on full-scale research drill bits and drill-bit seals. In addition, more materials information was gathered, and a number of additional seals of high-temperature elastomer materials were obtained for testing. Maurer Engineering, on a subcontract basis, has also been active in the design and procurement of candidate high-temperature drill-bit seals for testing, and has done a literature and patent search on the problem of drill-bit insert retention. Reed Tool Co. has cooperated in the fabrication of drill bits for testing, and has offered consultation on certain seal designs.

A detailed investigation is reported of cuttings recovered from three wells in the Salton Sea geothermal field located at the southeast end of the Salton Sea, California. The wells, Magmamax No. 2, Magmamax No. 3, and Woolsey No. 1 penetrate 1340 m, 1200 m, and 730 m, respectively, of altered sandstones, siltstones, and shales of the Colorado River delta. The wells are located at the crest of a thermal anomaly, reach a maximum of 320/sup 0/C at 1070 m, and produce a brine containing approximately 250,000 mg/1 of dissolved solids.

Workshop proceedings included the following: (1) During the Overview Session some papers, among others, discussed 'Geothermal Reservoir Engineering Research' and 'Geothermal Reservoir Engineering in Industry'; (2) Session I, Reservoir Physics, included papers on 'Steam Zone Temperature Gradients at the Geysers' and 'Water Influx in a Steam Producing Well'; (3) Session II, Well Testing, included papers on 'Borehole Geophysics in Geothermal Wells--Problems and Progress' and 'Herber-Pressure Interference Study'; (4) Session III, Field Development, included papers on 'A Reservoir Engineering Study of the East Mesa KGRA' and 'Determining the Optimal Rate of Geothermal Energy Extraction'; (5) Session IV, Well Stimulation, included papers on 'Fluid Flow Through a Large Vertical Crack in the Earth's Crust' and 'Explosive Stimulation of Geothermal Wells'; and (6) Session V, Modeling, included papers on 'Steam Transport in Porous Media' and 'Large-Scale Geothermal Field Parameters and Convection Theory.'

Noise levels from the cooling towers of clustered and dispersed arrays of cooling towers for large power plants are presented, and a procedure is presented for the prediction of noise levels at some distance from the rim of a single isolated tower. Two types of cooling systems, namely mechanical-draft wet and natural-draft wet cooling towers, are considered, which are assumed to act as the sole source of noise generation in power plants. The procedure for the prediction of noise levels from single isolated towers is then extended to determine noise levels at some point on the site boundary of energy centers being proposed for the future. It is concluded that if one wishes to minimize the area impacted by objectionable noise levels, then for concentrated power centers either mechanical-draft or natural-draft towers may be chosen, while for more widely dispersed centers natural-draft systems must be recommended. Special emphasis has been placed upon the A-weighted sound levels, which correlate well with human sound perception. One dimensional free wave spreading and atmospheric absorption are the attenuation factors taken into account.

The acquisition, generation and analysis of a teleseismic data base for the Imperial Valley are reported. Travel-time data were generated for 176 earthquakes at widely different azimuths and epicentral distances with respect to the 16 seismic stations in the Imperial Valley array (IVA). Several programs for preprocessing this data base, including error analysis routines, were written and applied to the teleseismic travel-time data.

A complete system designed to measure, with high precision, changes in heat transfer rates due to fouling and corrosion of simulated heat exchanger tubes, at sea and under OTEC conditions is described. All aspects of the system are described in detail, including theory, mechanical design, electronics design, assembly procedures, test and calibration, operating procedures, laboratory results, field results, and data analysis programs.