Lava threat to power station
HAWAII: GEOTHERMAL PLANT IN DANGER
Potential hazard of this kind is untested anywhere in the world but wells are stable, says governor.
Abroad lava flow crossed onto the property of a Hawaii geothermal power station on Saturday, posing a new hazard as molten rock from the erupting Kilauea volcano bulldozed relentlessly through homes and backyards.
The lava crossed onto the Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV) on Saturday evening, according to the US Geological Survey, having destroyed dozens of nearby houses in the past few days.
Since Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano began a once-in-a-century-scale eruption on May 3, authorities have shut down the plant, removed 227 000 litres of flammable liquid and deactivated wells that tap into steam and gas deep in the earth’s core.
Magma has drained from Kilauea’s summit lava lake and flowed about 40km east underground, bursting out of about two dozen giant cracks or fissures near the plant.
“The flow from fissures 21 and 7 was widening and advancing,” Janet Snyder, a spokesperson for the County of Hawaii, said in an e-mail on the position of lava heading northeast towards PGV at 12.30pm.
Hawaii Governor David Ige has said the wells are stable.
But lava has never engulfed a geothermal plant anywhere in the world and the potential threat is untested, according to the head of the state’s emergency management agency.
Residents have complained of health hazards from emissions from the plant since it went online in 1989, and PGV has been the target of lawsuits challenging its location near active volcanoes.
The Israeli-owned 38 megawatt plant typically provides about 25% of electricity on the Big Island. – Reuters