Date: Fri May 07 2004 - 11:19:25 CDT
Hi All,
Yesterday's visit to Braidwood was an all around success.
Before we had even arrived the engineers there had concluded that it was
not a problem to locate a shaft on the gravel pad next to the switch
yard. They proposed a 100 foot easement from both the road just east of
the security fence and the switch yard fence. This translates to a
tunnel of less than 50 meters to the ideal near detector location (just
outside the security fence). 50 meters of compared to the 300 meters
used in the Hilton Cost Estimate represents a cost savings of $7.5
million unloaded.
They agreed to let us drill bore holes at both the near and far shaft
sites. The next steps will be as follows...
1) Chris Laughton will prepare a bid scope for the bore hole drillings
and circulate that both within the collaboration and to the Braidwood
engineers.
2) The bore holes will go out to bid.
3) Vic Guarino will visit Braidwood to complete a GPS survey of several
landmarks and locate exact positions for the bore holes.
4) After the bore holes are dug and we are fully convinced that
Braidwood remains a viable and attractive site, we will discuss the
project with the plant manager to get his approval for the project to
proceed.
We also visited the general area of the far detector. We found the
ground there to be covered with a mix of brush and grasses. Depending
on the baseline the the overhead power lines may be an issue. The
attached photon shows the view from a baseline of 1800 meters looking
towards the reactor. There are two sets of power lines clearly
visible. They move away from the centerline at somewhere between 1200
and 1600 meters. The exact locations of these power lines will be
determined when Vic surveys the site.
-Jon
