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NASA Report Proposes to Stop a Supervolcanic Eruption by Siphoning Heat From It

posted by martyb on Monday August 21 2017, @09:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the matter-of-scale dept.

takyon writes:

A NASA plan to stop a supervolcano from erupting would also be a source of geothermal energy:

Beneath Yellowstone National Park is a giant volcano. The heat from this volcano powers all of the park's famous geysers and hot springs, so most tourists probably don't worry about having tons of hot magma under their feet. But perhaps they should: The Yellowstone supervolcano is a disaster waiting to happen.

The supervolcano erupts about every 600,000 years, and it's been about that long since the last eruption. That means the volcano could erupt any day now, and if it does it'll send enough dust and ash into the sky to blot out the sun for years, along with blowing a 25-mile-wide crater in the western U.S. That's why a group of NASA scientists and engineers are developing a plan to prevent an eruption by stealing the volcano's heat.

[...] NASA's plan is to drill a hole into the side of the volcano and pump water through it. When the water comes back out, it'll be heated to over 600 degrees, slowly cooling the volcano. The team hopes that given enough time, this process will take enough heat from the volcano to prevent it from ever erupting.

As a bonus, the scientists are proposing to use the heated water as a source of geothermal energy, potentially powering the entire Yellowstone region with heat from the volcano that wants to destroy it. A geothermal generator could produce energy at around $0.10 per kWh, competitive with other energy sources.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by RamiK on Monday August 21 2017, @02:11PM (1 child)

    by RamiK (1813) on Monday August 21 2017, @02:11PM (#557029)

    by evaporating part of it...I am not aware of any industrial-scale power plants that are only air-cooled.

    Stop looking in the US. These environmental concerns are relatively new and the US hasn't been meaningfully investing in infrastructure, let alone green infrastructure, for about 3 decades now. Look up closed circuit dry cooling plants in Asia, Africa and Europe. Start here: http://www.ucsusa.org/clean-energy/energy-and-water-use/water-energy-electricity-coal [ucsusa.org]

    Some real world examples are mentioned here: http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/cooling-power-plants.aspx [world-nuclear.org]

    The tech is there. It's not even that expensive. And it's not like you care about efficiency when the fuel is free...

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  • (Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Tuesday August 22 2017, @09:18AM

    by fraxinus-tree (5590) on Tuesday August 22 2017, @09:18AM (#557441)

    Thanks for the links.