—The Daily Collegian Thursday, May 10, 1979
Source of energy
under western soil
By SCOTT McCLEARY
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
Beneath 11 million acres of three
Western states lies a potential energy
source that could supply the United
States' total energy needs for over 100
years, at presents rates of con
sumption, according to Tony Pon
tello, program manager of the
Energy Conservation and Resource
Development division of the U.S.
Department of Energy in
Philadelphia. That energy source is
oil shale.
One ton of oil shale would give up to
140 gallons of oil. The oil is not of as
good a quality as the conventionally
drilled oils, and the cost is high to
produce it, but there is a tremendous
supply, Pontello said.
The shale is crushed and then
heated, in a process known as
retorting, to extract the oil from the
rock. Extra refining is then needed to
get particles out of the oil, he said.
"France was the first to produce
the oil from shale," Pontello said,
"and the United States first started
mining oil shale in 1860, two years
after the first oil well was drilled in
this country."
There is an estimated I.s trillion
barrels of oil locked up in the shale in
Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, he
said. By 1985 we could be producing
up to 600,000 barrels a day.
Environmental effects are a factor
in the production of shale oil, Pontello
said, There is a lot of dust produced
when they mine the oil shale, and
there are laws against the dust.
The waste rock can be used for fill,
and then plants can be grown on the
fill, he said. There is a drawback
the fill has to be heavily watered, and
there isn't that much water where the
shale is mined.
Another source of potential energy
is the wind, according to Pontello.
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Wind can be used for power
anywhere where the average
,wind
speed is greater than 14 miles per
hour, he said. This is in any moun
tainous area, he said. The only place
that the wind isn't a real source for
power is on the Great Plains and in
the Southeast.
A more limited but valuable source
of energy is geothermal energy. This
form of power is limited to the site of
geysers or hot springs which supply
steam to turn turbines that produce
electricity, Pontello said.
Geothermal energy is used around
the world for such things as heating
green houses, drying lumber and
heating homes, he said. It is poten
tially• valuable, abundant and
generally pollution-free, the only
pollutant produced being sulphur.
Geothermal energy is not as
profitable if used to produce elec
tricity in the East, but the potenti l fil
for heating dwellings is still there,
Hubert Barnes, professor of
geochemistry, said. •
If a well is drilled deep enough, hot:
water can be found, he said, and if it
is hot enough and plentiful enough,
homes can be heated with it.
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The United States had a windmill
industry until the 1930 s when elec
trcity was made available to the
remote farmer, he said.
Windmills for electric power for
private use range in price from $BOO
to $26,000 and can generate from 200
to 6,000 watts, he said.
"The wind is a very viable energy
source," Ted Ankrum, of the office of
the assistant secretary for Resource
Applications, said.
Right now the government is
working on the technology to exploit
the wind, he said. The government
spent $B4 million on development of
that technology last year, according
to Ankrum.
Nuclear waste disposal researched'
By ELIZABETH FOX
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
Researchers here at Penn State are
now developing methods to convert the
most dangerous nuclear wastes into
synthetic forms so stable that they will
not decompose under the worst possible
geological conditions.
According to Gregory J. McCarthy,
Penn State researcher, we will soon, be
able to tailor waste forms for great
stability in many types of geological
hosts. At the present time, scientists are
testing existing forms to evaluate and
improve their stability in salt and other
geological repositories.
"We have already determined the
strengths and weaknesses of the half
dozen synthetic waste forms currently
being considered worldwide," McCarthy
said.
McCarthy, along with other Penn
State researchers, has designed a
synthetic mineral form which is
Coal cheaper, but has its drawbacks
University, nation considering coal for future
By BECKY JONES
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
Coal, a fossil fuel used by man for many years to
provide energy, is one of the major sources of fuel for
the University. According to Joseph Bennett;
spokesman of public, information, Ralph F. Spearly,
director of physical plant maintenance, had said 80-85'
percent of the fuel burned by the University for energy
is coal.
The main purpose of coal use is to supply steam heat
to the University's buildings, Spearly said. The ready
availability of the steam allows some of it to be used to
produce electricity, supplying approximately 16 per
cent of the University's electricity, he said.
In supplying over three-quarters of the University's
burned fuel, coal has a number of advantages. First,
coal is cheaper than either oil or gas, the University's
other fuels which are burned, Spearly said. He added
coal is much more readily available in this area than
are oil or gas.
However, the use of coal also has its drawbacks
"proving to be quite stable and may
even be near equilibrium with silicate
rocks under the worst hydrothermal
conditions," he said.
These "worst case hydrothermal
conditions" would exist if water were to
come in contact with the nuclear waste
form due to the combination of high
pressure and radioactive heat during the
first few hundred years of burial. This
period is the most dangerous time
during burial.
"We have great confidence with ex
treme stability and are now looking to
nature to the way she has built rocks,"
McCarthy said. "In two billion years
some of nature's rocks have not
dissolved. There is evidence in nature
that these rocks can stand the worst
nature can give out," he said.
Two types of man-made forms are
being developed by scientists for
disposing of this high-level nuclear
waste: glass-like solids and synthetic
Spearly cited excessive pollution and ash residue as the
major problem of coal use.
The pollution factor affects not only' the University's
method of use but also the amount it uses. Spearly said
coil is overfired in order to meet federal pollution
regulations. This means it is burned at the same time as
oil or gas to cut down on the amount of sulfur released
into the air.
Federal pollution regulattons have been a cause of the
decrease in the University's use of coal, he said.
Federal regulations have also accounted for a
decrease in coal 'production, according to Leonard
Gross, general manager of public relations at
.Con
solidation Coal Company in Pittsburgh.
Gross cited the 1960 Mine Regulation Act which put
more people in the mines, and other regulations, such
as requiring extra time to be spent mining each ton, as
specific examples.
These combined conditions contributed to a decrease
in production of almost 40 percent since 1970 in tons
mined per person per day, Gross said.
.Not only has production been down, but demand has
mineral ceramics which mimic rocks in
nature. The glass form is older and
better developed and is now being
planned for burial. The, synthetic forms
McCarthy has been developing have
been tested in the laboratory and have
proved to be quite stable. In tests lasting
up to six months at 300° C, the ceramics
showed very little alteration or release
of hazardous elements.
There has been a substantial amount
of funding from the government for
nuclear research, and McCarthy says
that there has been steady funding for
the last six years at the University. He
predicts that there will probably never
be a lack of funds for this type of
research.
"Nuclear research is a major effort at
Penn State. If you talk to sporting people
and mention Penn State, they think of
Paterno and the team. But if you talk to
ceramic and nuclear scientists and
mention Penn State, they think of
research in nuclear waste disposal,"
McCarthy said.
When asked if research was changed '
by the Three Mile Island accident,
McCarthy said that it is not likely to
effect their research because there is
nuclear waste to be disposed of at. all
times. This waste is not currently being
disposed of in a permanept fashion. •
The location for these waste disposa
sites would have to be geographically
isolated. The main consideration would
be that no mineral deposits were located
in the immediate area. There must also
be stable, dry rock formations under 'the
ground and it must be in a locki9p
where there are no volcanos or eJt j,
thquakes.
"The states would have to give their
OK, but if we can prove the stability, of
the waste forms we are developing, we
can assure them that they won't have to
worry about leakage," McCarthy said..
‘,J)
also declined. Gross said limits on the types of coattha . ) l
can be burned, refusal of companies to stock up on coal
reserves, and a decline of prosperity in the steel
business are all contributing factors in the lower
demand for coal.
'Supply and demand are not the only issues of the day
surrounding coal. Safety is also a major concern. Such
dangers as methane gas, coal dust and black lungz il
although much less common than in the past, 'are'
constant threats to miners' lives, Gross said.-
In 1977, 128 people died in bituminous coal-related
incidents. On the_optimistic side, this number is down
from previuos years in a continuing decrease in mining
related deaths. •
Looking ahead, what is the future for coal, on campus ,¢.
and nationally? Spearly said no coal shortage is 4
foreseen for the University in the near future and did
not comment on possible future alternatives.
Gross predicted the future of coal to be synthetic. He
said it will have to be converted to a gas or liquid to
burn cleaner. At present, though, there .are no com
mercial conversion plants in this country, he said.