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Show t Fall Sees Letup in N-Power Starts, But Activity Continues to Mount Uranium claim filings arc pouring in again at the Grand county Recorder's Record-er's office, after two comparatively com-paratively lax months. Already Al-ready 'his month there have boon 671 claims filed; the entire month of August Aug-ust produced 319, and July Ju-ly only -43. May the peak month of the year, saw 1.522 claims filed. County Recorder Esther Someiviile notes the inactivity inac-tivity of filings in August and July was replaced by a her.vy load of proof of labor filings to validate previously filed claims before be-fore the September deadline. dead-line. To date, 4.1S8 Labor Proofs have been filed. Fall has seen a letup in nuclear power plant orders, ord-ers, too. For the first month this year, the "Nuclear "Nu-clear Energy" magazine in their September edition, reported no new orders for nuclear pewer plants However, reactor manufacturers manufac-turers indicate more ord-. ers above the 24 already made public may be expected ex-pected before the year ends. Peacetime Uses The doors opened suddenly sud-denly this year, to peacetime peace-time use of uranium for power, and spurred an in-surgence in-surgence of uranium prospecting pros-pecting and development work in the Moab area. Much of t!;e U308 to activate ac-tivate nuclear power generating gen-erating plants hinges on ore from Southeastern Utah known to be one of the largest producing areas in the nation. World uranium needs over the next ten year period make the SE Utah industry outlook bright. 1972 is expected ex-pected to be the peak capacity ca-pacity year for nuclear reactor power, with 11,-151 11,-151 mge anticipated. Next year, 1968, is estimated at 1.8.30 mwe; 1969 3,475; 1970, 7.811 mwe; and 1971 10,898 mwe. After the peak 1972 year, estimates take a downward trend to 9,327 mwe in 1973, and 1,350 mwe by 1974. Prepare Now The AEC and industry have been urged to prepare pre-pare now for the heavy volume of nuclear power plant operating licenses that will be coming up for consideration starting next year. "Nuclear Energy" quotes warnings issued by Riebort Lowenstein, Washington, Wash-ington, D.C., attorney and former AEC Assistant Director Di-rector of Regulation, at hearings before the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. En-ergy. He warned that a bottleneck could arise In the processing of operating operat-ing licenses, particularly in view of the many technical tech-nical questions which were left for later resolution when construction permits per-mits were Issued. Lowenstein advised that in view of the greatly Increased In-creased regulatory workload work-load that will be imposed, the AEC and industry should take every possible step to anticipate the problems pro-blems potentially posed by the coming volume of operating op-erating license applications. applica-tions. If a logjam were to develop, at the license stage, he noted, the regulatory regu-latory staff would not resort re-sort to short cuts to expedite expe-dite the processing of applications. ap-plications. Time, rather than safety, would suffer, he predicted. . Thermal pollution appears ap-pears certain to become i major factor in connection with the licensing of nuclear nu-clear power plants. The AEC has reportedly taken the position that thermal pollution is not within its jurisdiction. This position has been challenged by states preparing to involve invol-ve in nuclear power, Vermont, Ver-mont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, as contrary - to an obligation imposed upon the AEC by federal and state water pollution control legislation. The Nuclear power age which has spurred the u-raniu-m industry to action in Grand County, has creat ed a multitude of problems elsewhere which are being discussed at various confabs con-fabs over the nation. Typical Typ-ical issues are scheduled at the Forum's Public Affairs Af-fairs and Information Program Pro-gram in its 6th workshop next month, where Atomic (Power Growtlh, Atomic Power Production, Regulatory Reg-ulatory Outlook, Air and Water Quality, Conservation, Conserva-tion, and Utility Case Studies, Stu-dies, are on the agenda. |