31 May 2002

Our San Diego Chapter of the Air & Waste Management Association hosted a 2-day symposium today and tomorrow. Nearly 200 people came from all over the world to discuss the pros and cons of dry cooling systems for power plants. Most power plants are cooled with water, which isn't very good for the environment. Drawing so much water into a power plant kills lots of fish and warms up the water on the way out. Water-based cooling towers also emit particulate matter. Dry cooling uses far less water and has no emissions. The trouble is that dry cooling systems are huge and noisy. The symposium brought people together to talk about such things, because so many new power plants are being built these days to meet the needs of the ever-growing world population.

These are the speakers in the first session. The man standing at the lectern is Det Kroger from South Africa. He's the world's leading expert on dry cooling of power plants. He spent 29 hours in airplanes and airports (Cape Verde, Atlanta, Minneapolis, then San Diego) to get here!

DWL