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RE: [cdn-nucl-l] Natural gas and greenhouse gas production

 
Mike English wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: English, Michael
To: Brown, Morgan; cdn-nucl-l (E-mail)
Sent: 1/15/2003 9:40 AM
Subject: RE: [cdn-nucl-l] Natural gas and greenhouse gas production

   <snip>

The second point, and this goes back to my university days so I might
have it mixed up, is about your question of losses in Canada's
distribution system.  In an environmental chemistry class in 2nd year,
we learned of a large methane pipeline that operated in the former USSR
and effectively supplied gas to the entire Union.  As I recall, global
methane emissions actually went down after the collapse of the USSR as
this pipeline's use was discontinued at that time.  As I understand it,
it leaked like a sieve.
 
Cheers
Mike
 
================

What Mike says about global methane emissions and the collapse of the Soviet
Union is certainly plausible.  Leaking natural gas was responsible for a
horrific disaster about 15 years ago near Ufa in the Ural Mountains.

A natural gas pipeline and a railroad line shared a mountain pass through
the Urals.  The pipeline leaked, two passing trains ignited the gas cloud,
and more than 600 people died.

Best regards.

Jim Dukelow
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA
jim.dukelow@pnl.gov

These comments are mine and have not been reviewed and/or approved by my
management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.