Posted on 05/02/2008 6:26:03 AM PDT by Clear Rivers
Bringing juice to both Carolinas, but at what cost?
The plan to build a duke nuclear power plant in Cherokee County is gaining steam.
And questions over the plan and its impact are heating up
Many turned out in Gaffney thursday night to say what they think of the plan, as did officials close to the project.
Mike Cherin, a local resident concerned about the impact said, " We need to organize the community a lot more now..to make sure they are aware..the costs of this plant..what damage its going to do to our water sources..specifically the broad river."
After community input and local findings, the nuclear regulatory commission will hand over its findings to be judged for approval or rejection.
The plant likely wouldn't be finished until 2016.
There are -4- other nuclear power plants in South Carolina.
we need a manhattan project to have 50 plants online by 2012.
Or worse, a PEPSI Syndrome...and only JImmy Carter can save us.
How about Duke's track record? Charlotte is located between two huge Duke nuclear plants, Catawba and McGuire. No problems--in fact, they have spurred economic development and increased recreational activity.
Unlike the article's author, we don't mind capitalizing Duke or Broad River.
Dear Gaffney:
Your town is most famous for having a water tower that looks like a giant asscrack. (Yes, I know, it’s a peach, but there’s a reason it’s called the Big Butt in the Sky.) Enjoy your new nuclear power plant and the hundreds of good jobs it will produce.
}:-)4
I can see the Byron, Illinois nuke plant from my back yard. It’s been a good neighbor, helping to keep local taxes down, and keeping the electricity arund here accessible and reasonably priced.
Yeah but everytime a truck backfires, you lose 3 years.
Other than the tasteful evacuation information calendar I got every year, I really didn't think about it.
The Carolinas still have plenty of dirty hippies and leftie organizers being turned out by their bastions of education. Chapel Hill practically reeks of Pachouli Oil , rotten tofu and unwashed bodies.Let the hissy fits and leg flailing begin!
There were 2500 different conditions that would cause a safety shutdown, causing a steam dump that sounded like a 747 landing in your living room. Never happened while I was there, but was said to scare the ***(processed food out of your lower intestinal tract).
It produces more power at night than could be used in the local grid. They were already pumping water from Lake Keowee, the adjacent hydroelectric power lake also used for cooling water, upstream into Lake Jocassee, also a hydroelectric power lake.
So they built the Bad Creek Pumped Storage facility, a “gravity battery”. Using excess nighttime nuclear generated electricity, water was pumped from a powerplant buried in the mountain at the headwaters of Lake Jocassee. This plant was a quarter mile inside the mountain, fed by 4 eight foot diameter pipes into centrifugal pumps about 15 to 20 feet in diameter.
Giant electric motors pump water up through the roof of the powerplant cavern into the Bad Creek pond, a 385 acre lake located 1000 feet directly above the cavern. At full pound the head is over 1300 feet. When peak demand hits in the afternoon and evening, the water in the pond flows straight down through the turbines turning the former electric motors into generators. Each of the four produce 330 MW at full pond. Neat, huh!
By the way, the entrance to the powerplant cavern is located near the foot of Whitewater Falls, the tallest series of cascades east of the Rockies. The plant does not detract from the scenery of this beautiful area know as the "Blue Wall". Looking down on the area from the Duke Power overlook park in reninds you of fjords. Duke created a park on the mountain at the headwaters then gave it too the state. Beautiful area! Nuclear, regular hydro and pumped storage in one system. Neat!
As to worries about hot water dumped into the Broad River, I'll take all the warm water you can give me and start a Tilapia Aquaponics farm next to the plant!
The fact that the land has already been graded, the holding ponds and water channels already in place makes this an ideal site since it would reduce the costs of the new plant and help Duke Power recoup losses from the old one.
Other than water usage (we have been in a drought or near drought for six years now and water usage has become a big issue here) there is little argument for the reactors not to be built at this site.
I’ve rafted down the French Broad River. It smelled bad. The guides said it was very polluted.
This power plant discharge should be a big improvement.
Link to picture of Deepcore set in the containment structure as it looks today.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
