Idea could put nuclear reactors underground 11:09 PM CDT on Monday, June 11, 2007 By Dave Fehling / 11 News You usually only hear about them when something goes wrong: the enormous underground caverns used around Houston to store oil and explosive gases. But there are proposals to put things in the caverns that go way beyond oil and gas.
On the outskirts of Houston, pipes leading to massive underground storage caverns have leaked and caused spectacular fires. Once was was three years ago in Liberty County, and 20 years earlier in the nearby town of Mont Belvieu, leaks led to an explosion that killed two workers. Only the foundations remain after petrochemical companies bought out and moved the families who once lived here. They are two accidents that remind us of what we cannot see, what is stored underground. In several sites just outside of Houston, explosive gases and crude oil are stored in enormous underground caverns carved out of salt formations. “These things are much bigger than the Astrodome,” Dr. Don Van Nieuwenhuise said. The enormous salt formations were originally mined as a source for table salt, and some still are, like in far northwest Harris County. After some of the salt is dug out, the walls of the salt cavern are, in theory, impermeable. And that has scientists thinking. The federal government is already storing radioactive waste in one salt cavern in New Mexico, and there’s a study under way in Texas to use caverns to bury waste from coal-burning power plants. But that’s not all. What about using those underground salt caverns to house nuclear reactors? Some scientists see this part of Texas as the perfect place to try this radical new approach. Dr. Wes Myers worked for years on the country’s nuclear program. Then when the terror attacks using planes raised concern about the vulnerability of nuclear power plants, he thought, why not build the reactors underground? “And because I’d worked as a geologist here on the Gulf Coast early in my career, I knew of the salt domes,” Dr. Myers said. “And here are these huge rooms that are very stable; in my view, this deserves a serious look.” “I see a lot of problems with that,” Dr. Van Nieuwenhuise said. University of Houston geologist Dr. Van Nieuwenhuise fears not enough is known about the long-term stability of the caverns. “There’s a number of salt mines around the world that are having problems with leakage right now,” he said. “It’s kind of a surprise to everyone; no one was expecting it. “I don’t know that there’s any technology saying that salt is going to stay secure,” Dr. Van Neiuwenhuise said. Cecil Parker lives atop the salt caverns in Mont Belvieu. He’s highly skeptical of using caverns for nuclear reactors or to bury toxic waste, but he has no problems with the explosive gases now stored there. “Things are a lot safer than it used to be,” he said. Safer, but the question is just how safe, no matter how far underground. _http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou07611_ac_saltdomes.3960abf5.html_ (http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou07611_ac_saltdomes.3960abf5.html) ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
