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Show Geothermal research conducted near Milford University of Utah scientists have been awarded a major contract by the federal Energy Research and Development Administration for extensive geothermal research near Milford, Utah. The work will be undertaken at Roosevelt Hot Springs, where U scientists are working closely with geologists, geophysicists and engineers from several private companies. Dr. Stanley H. Ward, chairman of the Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, said the ERDA contract calls for survey work to detect underground heat sources that ' would be . potential.; generators of geothermal steam energy. The U researchers also will attempt to improve geothermal detection and evaluation technologies and monitor possible environmental changes. Dr. Ward is principal investigator in-vestigator for the $462,000 project and will be assisted by eight other U geologists, geochemists and geophysicists and about ten graduate students. Through grants from the National Science Foundation, the U Geothermal Team has spent , more than two years developing geological) gee-chemical and geophysical techniques that would improve well location predictions. The companies doing geothermal exploratory work in Utah include Phillips Petroleum, Getty Oil, Natomas, Aman ' Exploration, Inc., Union Oil, Thermal Power - Company of Utah and others. , Dr. Ward says that within a year U scientists hope to succeed in locating buried heat sources even in areas where surface manifestations such as thermal springs are totally absent., He says thermal springs in the , Milford, area . may . have. . the potential of generating 300 :,Megawjtts of-electrical power, which amounts to a sizeable portion of the state's current energy needs. v The U professor says it is too early to determine how many geothermal electric generation plants might eventually be .constructed ir Utah. |