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The Inco Superstack in Sudbury, Ontario, with a height of , is the tallest chimney in Canada and the Western hemisphere, and the second tallest freestanding chimney in the world after the GRES-2 Power Station in Kazakhstan. It is also the second tallest freestanding structure of any type in Canada, behind the CN Tower but ahead of First Canadian Place. It is the 40th tallest freestanding structure in the world. The Superstack is located on top of the largest nickel smelting operation in the world at Inco's Copper Cliff processing facility in the city of Greater Sudbury. ==History== The Superstack was built by Inco Limited (and later purchased by Vale) at an estimated cost of 25 million dollars. Construction on the structure was underway during the Sudbury tornado of 20 August 1970; the structure swayed heavily in the wind, but remained standing and suffered only minor damage.〔"90 mile winds smash Sudbury area". ''Toronto Star'', August 20, 1970. p. 1.〕 Six workers were on top of the construction platform when the storm hit; all six survived, but quit their jobs the following day.〔"6 nearly blown off 1,250-foot smokestack so they quit their jobs". ''Toronto Star'', August 21, 1970. p. 2.〕 The same day was the final day of construction on the stack, with the construction fully completed by the evening of August 21.〔"Smokestack resisted gale to become world's tallest". ''Toronto Star'', August 22, 1970. p. D3.〕 The stack entered into full operation in 1972. From the date of its completion until the Ekibastuz GRES-2 chimney was constructed in 1987, it was the world's tallest smokestack. Between the years 1972–75 it was the tallest freestanding structure in Canada. There were once many other shorter stacks beside it. Most have been demolished. Prior to the construction of the Superstack, the waste gases contributed to severe local ecological damage. The Copper Cliff smelter was already home to some of the worlds tallest stacks, including two 500-foot chimneys constructed in 1928-29 and 1936.〔http://www.sudburymuseums.ca/triangle/data/INCOTriangle-19621201.pdf〕 However these proved to be insufficient and compounded by open coke beds in the early to mid-20th century and logging for fuel, an inevitable near-total loss of native vegetation occurred. Of particular interest to geologists are the now exposed rocky outcrops, which have been permanently stained charcoal black, first by the pollution wafting over the decades from the roasting yards then by the acid rain in a layer which penetrates up to three inches into the once pink-grey granite. By the 1950s, Sudbury's image as a barren, rocky wasteland was established. Despite the industry, a growing working class population, and subsequent deforestation of the past century, some pockets of old growth forests have survived. The Superstack was built to disperse sulphur gases and other byproducts of the smelting process away from the city of Sudbury. It did this by placing the gases high in the air, where they normally blew right past the city on the prevailing winds. As a result, these gases can be detected in the atmosphere around Greater Sudbury in a radius of the Inco plant. During the 1970s and 80s, the smoke plume formed a permanent, opaque, cloud-like formation running across the entire horizon as seen from a distance. Periodic inversions would cause the plume to fall into the city. Construction of the Superstack was followed by an environmental reclamation project which has included rehabilitation of existing landscapes and selected water bodies such as Lake Ramsey. An ambitious regreening plan has seen over three million new trees planted within the Greater Sudbury area. In 1992, Inco and the city were given an award by the United Nations in honour of their environmental rehabilitation programmes. On November 3, 2014, Vale announced that they may decide to stop using the stack, following a $1 billion project to reduce emissions by 85% that negates the need for the stack. If no other use for it is found, Vale may decommission the superstack, demolish it, and replace it with a much smaller chimney. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Inco Superstack」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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