MORE NEWS, 8-5 (ANOTHER DELAY ON NUCLEAR WASTE; WIND THAT FLOATS; STUDY FINDS FOR LED LIGHTS)

ANOTHER DELAY ON NUCLEAR WASTE
Hanford waste study delayed over Yucca Mountain
Annette Cary, August 4, 2009 (McClatchy via Tacoma News Tribune)

"A long-awaited study expected to lead to final decisions on environmental cleanup of much of the Hanford nuclear reservation's waste has been delayed because of Yucca Mountain.

"The draft Tank Closure & Waste Management Environmental Impact Statement most recently was expected to be released in May. Now the Department of Energy is saying the draft report, expected to be thousands of pages long, will be available by the end of the year…The draft was originally planned to be ready in spring 2007…"

Meanwhile, the waste piles higher and deeper. (click to enlarge)

"The wide-ranging environmental study was planned to address such key questions as how quickly to treat radioactive waste now stored in underground tanks, how much waste may be left at the bottom of the tanks and what to do with the tanks themselves…[B]ecause of the Obama administration's decision to sideline plans for opening a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the Hanford draft study will be delayed…Additional time is needed…DOE said…

"Hanford's high-level tank waste was planned to be sent to the nation's nuclear waste repository after being treated…The study also will look at disposal alternatives for Hanford chemical and radioactive waste and such wastes sent from other states to be buried permanently at Hanford."

Hanford in its prime. Now awaiting cleanup. (from Wikipedia - click to enlarge)

"DOE had completed a study on solid waste, but the state of Washington questioned whether ground water information was adequate. Then during the final stages of a lawsuit filed by the state against DOE to stop the importation of nuclear waste to Hanford, DOE discovered problems with the ground water information in the study.

"It agreed to redo portions of the study as part of a settlement in January 2006 and to not ship most types of radioactive waste to Hanford until a new study was prepared. The solid waste study then was combined with the tank waste study…[It] also will cover the final treatment and disposal of strontium and cesium capsules now stored in a pool at Hanford. And it will address the final shutdown of Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility."


WIND THAT FLOATS
Offshore windmills hold clean-energy promise
David R. Baker, August 3, 2009 (SF Chronicle)

"Someday decades from now, California's sprawling coastal cities could draw their power from floating windmills that bob on the sea like buoys, far from shore…Their blades would spin over deep ocean water, turning in winds that are steadier and stronger than they are on land. Undersea cables would send their electricity to shore…This kind of floating windmill has not yet been deployed en masse. But a model of one sits in the Berkeley office of Principle Power, one of several companies trying to tap the powerful winds at sea.

"Principle has signed agreements with utilities to test its device, called the WindFloat, off the coasts of Oregon and Portugal. Three connected canisters filled with ballast water will support a wind turbine, with cables mooring the entire device to the seabed…"

click to enlarge

"While the idea may be simple, executing it isn't…Offshore wind farms have been used for years in Europe…[T]hose windmills sit in shallow water, their bases bolted into the ocean floor…But the seabed off most of California's coast drops quickly, close to shore. Standard ocean wind farms would have to be built near the state's beaches, plainly visible from land. And they wouldn't be able to cover much space, confined to a narrow band of water.

"Oil companies have long used floating platforms to drill into the seabed far from shore. But those platforms tend to be wide and heavy, and they aren't designed to catch the wind. A windmill floating on a small platform will have to endure heavy gusts without tipping…"

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"The potential rewards are huge. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that the wind blowing across California's deep water could generate as much as 130 gigawatts of electricity. That's roughly twice as much electricity as the state needs on a hot summer afternoon…

"Principle Power…[will] install the WindFloat off the coast of central Oregon as early as 2012. The project will start with a single WindFloat, capable of generating a maximum of 5 megawatts…If all works as planned, the WindFloat project will expand into an entire offshore wind farm, covering 12 to 15 square miles and capable of generating 150 to 200 megawatts…"


STUDY FINDS FOR LED LIGHTS
LEDs Are As Energy Efficient as Compact Fluorescents
Eric Taub, August 4, 2009 (NY Times)

"While there’s no question that LED lamps use a fraction of the energy to produce the same amount of light compared with a standard incandescent bulb… that’s only half the story…If the energy used to create and dispose of the LED lamp is more than that for a comparable standard bulb, then all of the proclaimed energy savings to produce light are for naught.

"…In March, a preliminary study reported by Carnegie Mellon indicated that LED lamps were more energy efficient throughout their life…A new study released on Tuesday by Osram, the German lighting giant, claims to have confirmed the efficiency findings."

Schematic of an LED. (from Wikipedia - click to enlarge)

"Conducted by the Siemens Corporate Technology Centre for Eco Innovations (Siemens is the parent of Osram and Sylvania), the report examines the energy needed to create and power an LED lamp. Even the energy needed to ship a lamp from the factory in China to an installation in Europe was taken into account."

Inside an LED. (from Wikipedia - click to enlarge)

"The study used a 25,000-hour LED lamp life as a constant, comparing the energy needed throughout its life to that used for 25 1,000-hour incandescents and 2.5 10,000-hour compact fluorescents.

"The findings…today’s LED lamps are essentially as energy efficient as compact fluorescents, in the amount of energy needed to create, recycle and provide light…[And] those numbers to improve as LEDs become more energy efficient…[More] confirming data will be released this fall, after review by three independent analysts…[A]ssuming the numbers hold, this total Life Cycle Assessment should put to rest any lingering doubts about the overall “greenness” of LEDs."