Rescuers used a tiny camera to see if Larry Marek was behind the cave in debris. No such luck.
Rescuers also pumped in air and water, through the holes they drilled. They’re hoping that Marek is in the open space found behind the rubble of last Friday’s cave in.
They’re still trying to dig alternate tunnels. They had to stop digging through the cave in rubble because the ground was unstable.
Rescuers at the Lucky Friday Mine cleared about 71 feet of debris, in their attempt to get to where Larry Marek might be. They still have another 149 feet to go. They’ve also started to drill a third air hole.
Nearly 200 people gathered in a local school to hold a vigil for the trapped miner.
Robots from the Idaho National Laboratory have been searching through the damaged reactor buildings at Fukushima Daiichi.
They have discovered temperature and radiation levels too high for humans. Tokyo Electric Power Company officials say they will have to use air conditioners, and filtration systems, to bring heat and radiation levels down enough for workers to operate inside the buildings. Latest NHK video
Rescue workers say they think there is a void within the caved in roof of the Lucky Friday mine. They drilled through the debris, ran a camera through and discovered that there is open space.
They drilled some other holes to let fresh air in. Rescuers have been working since the the cave in, on April 15. 53-year-old Larry Marek, and his brother were just finishing up watering down the latest dig, when the roof fell in. Larry didn’t get out.
Rescuers gave up trying to dig through the debris, because it became more dangerous as they went. They feared another cave in. Now they’re trying to dig new tunnels.
Tokyo Electric Power Company says high radiation levels, and high humidity, is slowing up robots being used to inspected the reactor buildings at Fukushima Daiichi.
In Reactor 2 building the humidity was so high it fogged the robot’s camera lens.
In Reactor 3, there is too much debris from the hydrogen gas explosion. They will use another robot that can clear the debris, some of which weighs 100kg (220 pounds).
Officials have decided it’s too dangerous to dig through the caved in roof of the Lucky Friday mine, near Mullan, Idaho.
They will now try digging two new shafts to get to Larry Marek. He and his brother were working in the mine on Friday, when the roof caved in.
Digging the new shafts could take seven days. Temperatures inside the mine, at the depth Marek was working, can hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius).
Rescuers are bringing in more equipment to dig out Larry Marek. A section of roof caved in on him and his brother last Friday, his brother got out.
The latest info is that a large diamond drill will be used to drill a hole through the debris, to try and determine if Marek is alive. It could take two days to drill through the 185 feet (56.3 meters) of dirt.
Rescue efforts are slow because the size of the collapse was underestimated. Rescuers are also waiting for parts, so they can use a bigger drone digger.
The company that owns the Lucky Friday mine, Hecla, has a good safety record going back to 2000. But there have been accidents at other Idaho mines. Last June a miner was killed when a slab of rock fell on him, while he was working at the Galena Mine.
Rescuers at the Lucky Friday mine near Mullan, Idaho, have started assembling the robot digger. They had to bring the drone front end loader into the mine in pieces, now they’re putting it together.
On Friday a 75 feet section of mine collapsed on two brothers working in the mine. One got out, the other did not. Rescuers hope to get the digger working later today.
NHK reporting that the robot sent by the Idaho National Laboratory has measured radiation levels inside reactors 1 and 3.
The robots were sent to Japan to help deal with the damaged Fukshima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The max radiation level inside the Reactor 3 building is 57 millisieverts per hour, while max level in Reactor 1 building is at 49 millisieverts per hour. The readings were taken on the first floor of the buildings.
Normal safe limits, for nuclear employees, are 100 millisieverts, but the Japanese government raised it to an emergency limit of 250 millisieverts. Even at the emergency limit, a worker would exceed it within four and a half hours of exposure.
They will check Reactor 2 building next. NHK video
For those of us, in Idaho, that like the idea of renewable, clean, energy sources, like wind and solar, it seems efforts to bring wind power to our state is blowing against the wind.
Just a few years ago the Idaho media was full of positive stories about wind energy bringing needed jobs, and power, to the state.
Now efforts to stop wind power expansion in the state, in the past couple of years, have made it all the way to the state capitol. In April the legislature refused, by a slim margin, to extend tax credits for wind farms.
A lobbyist for one company said they would not be able to build any new wind projects without it. It’s also true that many big (and evil) companies have gotten their hands in the Idaho wind power cookie jar, like General Electric (Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster) and British Petroleum (Gulf of Mexico oil disaster), so those particular corporations certainly don’t need tax breaks.
The point is that for the past couple of years there has been an all out effort to stop wind power development in the state of Idaho.
Here on the eastern side of the state, one city who originally welcomed the wind, is now saying they made a mistake.
Idaho Falls, in Bonneville County, is energy independent, providing their own power from hydroelectric dams on the Snake River. But as their city grew, their electric power couldn’t keep up. Idaho Falls looked to wind power to maintain their energy independence. Now you can see wind turbines east of the city. To independent minded tech junkies it looks cool, but, apparently to home buyers it’s a blight.
Idaho Falls real-estate agents claim they lost sales because of the wind farms: “There is nothing more tempting to the buyer than the smell of freshly baked cookies,” but when they saw the “…monstrous turbines, they marched right out of the house.”-Connie Clawson, Idaho Falls real-estate agent
Property near the turbines have seen their values go down. Cities and counties don’t like that ’cause that’s where they get most of their tax revenues from. As a result Idaho Falls halted any more wind turbine development.
In Bingham County, Idaho, officials denied the second phase of a proposed wind farm, after approving the first phase. Officially it was blamed on a vague 1984 county code. But one county commissioner admitted that property values was a factor: “My biggest concern was probably property values that would be affected.”-Ladd Carter, Bingham County Commissioner
Here’s a point I’d like to make about property values. Think of who really benefits from high property values: Real estate agents, counties and cities and school districts that rely on the property tax, and property speculators (remember, those people who created the housing market bubble). High property values don’t really benefit the people who plan on living in their homes for a long, long time.
Several years ago, people in Pocatello wondered what was to become of the abandoned FMC/Astaris phosphorus refining plant. The city announced a plan to turn it into a coal fired power plant. Residents were shocked, mainly because the FMC site was the cause of a Federal Superfund cleanup, and the nearby Native American reservation had successfully sued over pollution issues.
FMC site
People thought; we have plenty of wind here, why not a wind farm? The elected officials (supposedly representing the “people”) of Pocatello, and the county of Bannock, played a delaying game with the public. They held several public hearings, in which it became clear they did not want to hear from people arguing for the wind farm. Finally the officials declared that there would be no more public hearings on the issue, and nothing has been heard since about using the old FMC/Astaris site for a wind farm. (Apparently the company involved in the coal fired plant plan, decided to abandon the FMC/Astaris site, and look into a site nearer to American Falls)
Pocatello did have a wind turbine manufacturer in operation, but right before December 25, 2010, they announced they were leaving town. Nordic Windpower moved to Kanasas City, Missouri, after less than two years of operations in Pocatello.
There is some hope for wind power. Pocatello voters elected new officials, and recently the city revised building codes for small wind mills. “If we really want to promote wind power in the city, which I believe we do, we need to make it easier for wind turbines to go in and delineate where they would be welcome and where they maybe would be inappropriate.”-Marjanna Hulet, Pocatello Planning and Zoning Commission
The Pocatello Community Charter School became the first site for small wind mill (so small you have to look for it). It wasn’t cheap, even though it was part of the ‘Wind for Schools’ program, they still had to raise funds from sponsors.
Charter school windmill in Pocatello.
There is a new project in Downey (same county that Pocatello is in; Bannock), Idaho, that will use “accelerated wind turbines”. The company, Pavilion (PVRE), claims the turbines will maximize wind, so even areas with low wind speeds can use wind power. That company is also looking at using the former Nordic Windpower facilities (in the old Pocatello naval gun plant) as a factory for its accelerated wind turbines.
Then there is the Federal BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land in south east Idaho, that’s scheduled for use as a wind farm. Unfortunately most of the power is destined for Nevada. And despite the company’s name, RES America, it’s run by a foreign company. RES is based in the United Kingdom (Britain).
Also, Ridgeline Energy (another foreign owned company, Veolia of France), is building a 79.2 megawatt wind farm in Rockland, near American Falls (also in eastern Idaho).
Photos by: Alex Hutchins (click on the pics to make them bigger)