Cape Wind Associates plans to begin construction this fall on its controversial 454-MW wind farm in Nantucket Sound after receiving final approval for its construction and operating plan on April 19 from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. The farm, which should take about two years to build, has been in the works for more than 10 years and was fought by environmentalists and residents of Cape Cod. Cape Wind is still evaluating bids for construction of the farm, estimated to cost $2.5 billion. The project, about five miles off the Massachusetts coast, will consist of 130
The disaster set in motion on March 11 by a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant in an unlikely place: its spent-fuel pools, where experts speculate that loss of water caused a nuclear reaction among the fuel rods, creating a hydrogen explosion that blew a hole through the pools' relatively flimsy exterior and released radiation into the air. Photo: Courtesy of Nuclear Energy Institute Deep pools, originally designed for temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel rods at powerplant sites, are nearing capacity in the U.S., pushing more utilities to consider dry-cask storage. Photo: Courtesy of Nuclear
In a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Tennessee Valley Authority has agreed to shut some coal-fired generating units and install new or upgraded pollution-control equipment on others to cut air-pollution emissions at 11 of its powerplants. The pollution-control improvements will cost an estimated $3 billion to $5 billion. Under the settlement, announced on April 14, TVA will shut 18 of its generating units, which equal about 16% of its coal-fired electric power capacity. EPA says the measures will cut TVA nitrogen-oxide emissions by 69% and sulfur-dioxide emissions by 67%, compared with 2008 levels. The settlement addresses alleged
The U.S. Dept. of Energy's Oak Ridge and Lawrence Berkeley national laboratories are teaming with Dow Chemical Co. to fund research projects that develop the next generation of “cool roof” technologies. DOE announced the agreement on April 14. The goal is to develop solar reflective roof coatings that increase energy savings from existing cool-roof technologies by more than 50% for new and existing commercial buildings. The labs will work with Dow to improve the ability of roof coatings to continue reflecting sunlight even after years of exposure to the elements.
A U.S. Energy Dept. facility in Idaho that has stored melted fuel from the Three Mile Island nuclear plant since 1999 has not done enough to address crumbling concrete modules encasing radioactive material, says the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The facility holds damaged fuel from TMI unit 2, whose partial meltdown in 1979 resulted in the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history. The concrete modules are “showing significant cracking and degradation,” though they were built to last 50 years, NRC says. DOE has determined the problem is worsening, NRC says. The cracks have no impact on the safe storage of
Constructing any major hospital is a challenge, but building a 320-bed state-of-the-art teaching hospital for $16 million in the highlands of Haiti is fraught with difficulties. Yet the aid group Partners in Health (PIH) is doing just that, using funds that come not from the government or the United Nations but from donations collected by the Boston-based group, which has worked for 23 years to boost the capacity of Haiti’s public health sector. The materials, services and cash contributions are coming from private companies and organizations, especially from companies in the U.S. construction sector.The hospital, which will have six operating
Work on the nation's first public repository for data on disaster and failure events is under way. The National Institute of Standards and Technology expects to launch a pilot website for a broad disaster database early next year. Events stemming from earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, windstorms, community-scale fires, structural fires, storm surges, floods and tsunamis are included in the repository. Photo: Courtesy Nelson Architectural Enegineers Inc. Investigating engineer had to wait five years to sound alarm about flawed truss-joist product. “The effort will support development of standards and technologies for effective collection of data on disasters and failures,” in addition to
Debate over the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s decision to construct an underground station at Dulles Airport as part of its Metrorail extension project intensified this week, with local political leaders criticizing the choice as “irresponsible” and the agency defending the move as being in the best long-term interests of passengers and the community. The controversy stems from the MWAA’s April 6 approval of a plan to locate the subsurface station 500 ft from the main Dulles Terminal. Although the $600-million station and associated tunnel were part of the original 2005 design for the $3.5-billion second phase of the 23-mile light
Since 2005, federal government has invested $14.6 billion to improve perimeter protections around New Orleans to reduce the risk from hurricane storm surge. Many of the new or improved elements of the 350-mile-long system include features designed to reduce the cost of operation and maintenance. Photo: Angelle Bergeron Thousands of steel batter piles bracing the IHNC surge protection barrier are sheathed in neoprene jackets to increase life and reduce maintenance. Related Links: Keeping Up Defenses Power Pump: GIWW WCC on Its Way to Completion “The Corps went to great lengths to reduce O&M costs for the local sponsor,” says Colonel
Contractors on the $453-million superstructure erection portion of the $1.2-billion Huey P. Long Bridge widening project in New Orleans broke their own record when they lifted and skidded into place a 528-ft. long, 2,758-ton steel truss in 8.5 hours April 9. Photo: Angelle Bergeron The vertical, 102-ft lift of the 2,758-ton steel truss was accomplished in 4.5 hours. The strand jacks lifted an average of 23 ft per hour, as opposed to 17 ft per hour on the previous two lifts as contractors capitalized on experience. Photo: Angelle Bergeron Joint venture contractor MTI used four, 900-ton strand jacks to raise
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