ENERGY FLASHES

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TROJAN TROUBLES: Oregon's Trojan Nuclear Power Plant, the largest in the United States, has long suffered from serious safety problems . . . which are nearly driving Portland General Electric into bankruptcy with shutdowns and curtailed operations. To top that off, 14 employees—all but three of them plant security guards— were arrested for possession and sale of marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, and LSD.

A POPLAR CONCEPT: The University of Pennsylvania's Dr. E. Kendall Pye has developed: fermentation process to convert a new variety of fast-growing poplar tree (it regenerates itself from a stump) into ethanol. The technique can also use such tree crops to produce butanol-lignin, which can be used as a diesel or heating fuel.

LIGHT, POWER, FOOD, & FISH COMPANY: Some farsighted power companies are investigating the possibility of utilizing the water that cools turbines to heat huge vegetable greenhouses. The warm liquid could also be used to stimulate the growth of catfish and trout in utility-owned fish farms.

SOLAR ACTIVISTS are requested to call others to promote the sun-energy cause during legislative emergencies. To volunteer your services, write Solar Lobby (1020 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036). . . . Nobel Prizewinning chemist, Dr. Melvin Calvin, says PLANTS COULD SUPPLY 10% OF OUR PETROLEUM REQUIREMENTS in five years, and notes that more than 1,000 shrubs and trees are potential producers of oil .... After spending $488 million to build two new reactors, Virginia Electric & Power Company is looking into ways to CONVERT THE UNFINISHED BABCOCK AND WILCOX GENERATORS TO COAL.... Despite the $320 million spent annually to advertise electricity, U.S. voltage consumption increases dropped from the usual 3-7% to A SCANT 0.6% JUMP IN 1979. . . . Last year, our tab for imported oil was $68 billion, or—even with the price of gold at $800 an ounce—equivalent to the value of MOST OF THE BULLION IN FORT KNOX .... A RELATIVELY LOW-COST NICKEL-ZINC BATTERY —with a very high energy density—is undergoing life tests by NASA, and the results look extremely promising .... Milbrew, Inc. of Juneau, Wisconsin OBTAINS ALCOHOL FUEL FROM CHEESE WHEY, formerly a waste product. (Some 90 pounds of whey are produced for every 100 pounds of cheese.)

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