Dam !

I’ll read anything. I’ll read the back of a cereal box. What can I say ?

I was reading this guest opinion in The New York Times on dams and this jumped out at me.

Thousands of dams have been abandoned by their owners, and over time, title to them has become obscure — 12 percent of the dams in the Army Corps of Engineers’ inventory have no known owner. As these dams become dilapidated, the states are left with the expensive task of repairing or dismantling them. Privatization advocates, take heed: this is a cautionary tale.

Interesting thought. I have no idea why it made me think of Three Mile Island. TMI has nothing to do with privatization. Uh...well...not really...

”Three Mile Island Unit 1 was sold to AmerGen Energy Corporation, a joint venture between Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO), and British Energy, in 1998. In 2000, PECO merged with Unicom Corporation to form Exelon Corporation, which acquired British Energy's share of AmerGen in 2003, dissolving the company in the process. TMI Unit 1 is now owned and operated by Exelon Nuclear Inc., an Exelon Corp. subsidiary.”

Unit 1 is the one that still works. Unit 2 was the one damaged in the accident. I wonder who will own that in 100 years.

Don Brown
January 23, 2007

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