A broad lava flow crossed onto the premises of a Hawaii geothermal power station on Saturday, posing a new threat as molten rock from the erupting Kilauea volcano bulldozed relentlessly through homes and backyards.
The lava crossed onto the Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV) Saturday evening local time, according to the US Geological Survey, has destroyed dozens of nearby houses in the past few days.
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Since Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano began a once-in-a-century-scale eruption May 3, authorities have shut down the plant, removed 60,000 gallons 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 around 25 miles (40 km) east underground, bursting out of about two dozen giant cracks or fissures near the plant.
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“The flow from fissures 21 and 7 was widening and advancing,” Janet Snyder, a spokeswoman for the County of Hawaii, said in an email on the position of lava heading northeast towards PGV at 12:30 p.m.
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. Local residents fear an explosive emission of deadly hydrogen sulfide and other gases should well be ruptured.
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