. . . ENERGY FLASHES . . . ENERGY FLASHES . . .

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WINE MAKERS ARE RETURNING TO TRADITIONAL TUNNEL-STORAGE TECHNIQUES in order to cut utility and construction costs. Rutherford Hills Winery, one of California's Napa Valley vintners, has opted to dig a cave for storing its wine rather than proceed with plans for building a 30,000-square-foot refrigerated warehouse. Using electricity only for lighting, the cave will maintain ideal storage conditions — a natural temperature of 60° to 65°F, with 70% humidity — regardless of outside conditions . . . and should save a minimum of $12,000 a year in air-conditioning costs.

DISTURBINGLY HIGH CANCER RATES AMONG EMPLOYEES AT FEDERAL NUCLEAR FACILITIES have been discovered in 9 out of 12 Department of Energy (DOE) project-summary studies. Workers (including janitors, laborers, and construction personnel) at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have a 49% higher leukemia mortality rate than the U.S. average . . . those employed at the Oak Ridge uranium-processing plant from 1943 to 1947 had significantly higher lung cancer rates . . . and higher-than-average fatalities from Hodgkin's disease and cancer of the lungs, brain, and central nervous system were reported among employees at the Oak Ridge weapons plant. A 36% higher digestive cancer rate was found at the government's uranium-processing plant at Fernald, Ohio . . . and a 1976 study conducted by DuPont revealed a 60% excess incidence of lung cancer and a 114% higher-than-average leukemia rate at the Savannah River plant.

THERE ARE CURRENTLY ONLY 2 MILLION AUTOMOBILES IN CHINA, but that number is expected to jump to 13 million by the end of the century, according to The Wall Street Journal.... Construction of HAWAII'S LARGEST WIND TURBINE — a Danish-built unit rated at 340 kilowatts — has been completed on the island of Maui, and plans are underway to install 15 larger generators on Oahu .... The Sacramento Municipal Utility District will build a $40 MILLION, 5-MEGAWATT PHOTOVOLTAIC GENERATING FACILITY near Rancho Seco, California. The plant is expected to be producing current by 1987 . . . . and in Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee, A 3-MEGAWATT TURBINE FUELED BY SAWDUST will convert 100 tons of sawmill waste each day to produce power for the Tennessee Valley Authority.

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