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From: orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.sci
Subject: Re: Nuclear power and Alternatives: Geothermal
Message-ID: <959@whuts.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 3-Sep-86 09:13:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: whuts.959
Posted: Wed Sep  3 09:13:12 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Sep-86 06:23:09 EDT
References: <715@curly.ucla-cs.ARPA> <953@whuts.UUCP> <2431@ihlpg.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
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Xref: watmath net.politics:18892 net.sci:1571

Yet another item in the news recently of relevance to the problem
of the safe supply of energy.  The New York Times a month ago
reported on an experiment with geothermal energy in Maryland in
which a hole was dug deep enough to hit the hot rocks underneath
the surface.  It successfully produced electricity.

The major advance of the technique is that unlike other geothermal
techniques which rely on natural geysers or other such sources of
steam, this technique could essentially be used practically anywhere.
It just means digging deep enough to reach the region of the
earth's crust beneath the surface which is constantly hot.
The report said that such a hole could produce energy for a period
of some years. Then it would just be a few thousand years for the
heated rock to regain its heat from the earth's core.

An intriguing possibility...
Of course one would want to consider effects of geological stability.
                  tim sevener   whuxn!or