Utilities Midwest

The NRC response to the TMI-2 accident (NUREG-0737) impacted the four U.S. LWR manufacturers. Consumers Power Company (a midwest utility) estimated that cost of reimniting their Big Rock Point plant to be 125 million hence, not economical, given its age and si/e (240 MWt), nor were the requirements appropriate for unique characteristics of the plant and its siting. The utility initiated a PSA in which their plant personnel fully participated with the PSA contractors to identify and correct some areas of weakness. The NRC accepted the results without the major modifications that would otherwise have been needed. Furthermore, the understanding of the plant and its PSA by plant personnel made this a model for using PSA in plant improvemem. 

Midwest utilities are coal burners. They have the know-how and facilities to utilize solid fuels. Solvent refined coal, which has the potential of being the lowest cost coal liquefaction product because of its low hydrogen content, is of interest to this group. 

In the Midwest the wind blows across fields of corn, soybeans, wheat, and wind turbines—wind turbines It turns out that the wind that seems to blow almost continuously across the plains is now becoming the latest cash crop. One of these new-breed wind farmers is Daniel Juhl, who recently erected 17 wind turbines on six acres of land near Woodstock, Minnesota. These turbines can generate as much as 10 megawatts (MW) of electricity, which Juhl sells to the local electrical utility. 

Since terbufos is utilized broadly in the Midwest to control Diabrotlca species associated with corn, it served as the standard in the laboratory assay. Table 3 gives data for the performance of terbufos in the laboratory bioassay at 1.0 and 0.3 ppm. 

This reaction system is being utilized commercially in the Bioalarm instruments of Thom EMI (England) and Midwest Research Instruments (USA) incorporating immobilized cholinesterase. 

For the determination of inhibitors of cholinesterase, a serum sample of known enzyme activity is used. The reaction rate decreases on addition of an inhibitor, and the remaining activity is indicated (Figure 14-37). This reaction system is utilized commercially in the Thorn EMI (England) and Midwest Research Instruments (USA) bioalarm instruments both incorporating immobilized cholinesterase. 

By utilizing standard fermentation and distillation processes, companies in this sector are producing anhydrous ethanol. It can be blended with unleaded gasoline to form gasohol, which is currently marketed throughout the nation, although most sales are in the Midwest. 

After unsuccessful work, he in 1856 proposed to the Congress to remove all snags and wrecks from the large Midwest rivers and to keep their channels open. In 1861 he was summoned to Washington by President Lincoln to advise him on the best method of utilizing western rivers for attack and defence. 

Electric Utility Week (1999j), Alliant Energy Wins SEC Approval to Join Midwest Nuclear Management, November 15, pp. 14-15. 

A few years ago, a worker for a large metropolitan utility company in the Midwest was killed in a confined space. This incident, though not related to oil and gas operations, points to the dangers of confined space entry and hydrogen sulfide exposure with its characteristic deadly... 

McGuire, P. 1995. Energy and Manufacturing Potentials for Publicly and Privately Owned Electric Utilities in the Upper Midwest Following Deregulation. Great Lakes Economic Development Research Conference, Toledo, Ohio, October 14. 

To date, it has not yet been formed, and whether it will be is questionable. In a third case, four upper Midwest utilities have been discussing JNOC arrangements for over a year, but implementation success has been slow. In each of these instances, significant resources were expended in terms of personnel costs living, travel, and meeting expenses and so forth. Combined... 

Before the Waterloo accident. Midwest Gas Company had had an effective surveillance program that tracked and identified the high leakage rates associated with Century Utility Products, Inc., piping when subjected to stress intensification, the company could have implemented a replacement program for the pipe and may have replaced the failed service connection before the accident. 

The technological solutions to acid rain are at hand, but the political obstacles have been formidable. The midwestem electric utilities and the coal industry have formed a powerful coalition to block legislation aimed at cleaning up acid rain. It is not hard to see why Reducing SO2 emissions from power plants would increase the cost of generating electric power. It would also reduce the demand for high-sulfur coal, leading to a decline in production and the loss of thousands of jobs in the industry. The battle lines have been clearly etched between the Midwest and the Northeast. 

Legislation proposed by a number of U.S. senators from the Northeast would place a "cap" on SO2 emissions from power plants — that is, a limit on the amount of SO2 emitted per unit of electricity generated. Under such a plan, the majority of emissions reductions would come from the "dirtiest" coal-fired plants, chiefly clustered in the Midwest. Legislation aimed at reducing SO2 and NOx emissions has been adamantly opposed by the midwestern electric utilities and the coal industry. To understand the depth of the industry s opposition, it is important to understand what a large-scale pollution-control program would entail. 

Consider the field study on the sources of acid rain in the Adi-rondacks (discussed in Chapter 4). The study was sponsored by the utilities and Dr. Mohnen had played a prominent role. The results hardly gave comfort to the midwestern utilities 62% of the acid sulfate deposited on the Adirondacks in precipitation was found to come from the Ohio Valley/Midwest, while less than 5% came from the Northeast itself. (The reason for the twelve-fold disparity is that precipitation coming to the Adirondacks from the Midwest was fom times more polluted and tbiee times more plentiful than precipitation coming from the North-... 

The scientific press seemed confused by all this. In an editorial on acid rain in July 1983, Science asserted that"... there is wide disagreement among sincere people as to. . . who is responsible, and how the problem should be ameliorated. . . People in the northeast United States take the position that coal-fired utility plants in the Midwest are a principal source of the acid in the rain that has been falling on them. .. A large number of studies, however, have shown that the Northeast is itself responsible for a large share of its own pollution. Indeed, everyone who drives an automobile is a contributor to acid rain." ... 

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