Related Links: Lawmakers, Restoration Task Force, Outline Priorities for Gulf Japan Eyes Milestone in Overcoming Nuclear Disaster "Nimble" is not a word often associated with the nuclear industry. But following the Fukushima Daiichi disaster on March 11, nuclear experts from multiple countries and companies flew to the aid of the Tokyo Electric Power Corp. to help bring its nuclear plant under control and evaluate and mitigate the damage.Babcock and Wilcox, Charlotte, N.C., provided a remotely operated vehicle to inspect the plant's damage. The Energy Dept.'s Idaho National Laboratories sent a robot designed to withstand high levels of radiation. Paris-based Areva
A decade after work began on the $12.2-billion waste treatment plant at the U.S. Dept. of Energy's Hanford site in southeastern Washington—set to be the world's largest to treat "mixed" nuclear and chemical wastes—the 65-acre "vit plant" complex still faces uncertainty in cost and design, despite completion of 85% of its engineering and more than 60% of its construction.The difficulty of designing the facilities needed to turn Hanford's 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive and chemical wastes into vitrified glass has DOE and its main contractor, Frederick, Md.-based Bechtel National, cautious as they stare down a 2013 design completion deadline
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is considering legislation that would direct the majority of penalties paid by those responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to the Gulf Coast states. But some lawmakers, including committee Chairman John Mica, wonder if that approach is fair.The RESTORE Act, he said at a Dec. 6 hearing, "is crafted primarily to the benefit of the Gulf states that endured the primary damage." He added, "We want to be fair and equitable to all parties, including U.S. taxpayers."But the bill's chief sponsor, Steve Scalise (R-La.), countered, "It is critical to note that it is
Sue Bednarz Interior view of Portlands $464-million East Side Big Pipe project. For officials in Portland, Ore., the Big Pipe project is no longer a dream. The recently completed $1.4-billion, 20-year combined sewer overflow (CSO) control program was implemented in response to an Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality order to reduce significantly CSO events by December 2011. Thanks to large-diameter underground tunnels installed along the Columbia Slough and on both sides of the Willamette River, the city now meets the overflow frequency criteria set forth in 1991 by the DEQ. Annual CSO volume to the Columbia Slough and the Willamette
Related Links: Engineers Probe Why Wall Fell, Killing Two Plant Operators Collapsed Wall at Tenn. Treatment Plant Was Defective, OSHA Says NEO Corp., Canton, N.C., will start on Jan. 2 to demolish the equalization basin at the Gatlinburg, Tenn., wastewater treatment plant where two workers died after a wall collapse in April.The contract is for $96,100, and the work is to be completed within 45 days, according to a memo between the city of Gatlinburg and NEO.A date for requests for bids on the equalization-basin reconstruction has not been set, nor has a construction start, a city spokeswoman said.The NEO
Binghamton, N.Y., and Johnson City, N.Y., and their joint sewage board have gone back into court, detailing design and construction mismanagement problems at the sewage treatment plant where a 100-ft wall collapsed in May.Defendants now include 10 engineering or construction firms as well as four insurance firms, which are are involved in the $67-million, phase-three upgrade to meet state environmental standards for the outflow that feeds into the Susquehanna River.Leading the defendants are C&S Engineers Inc., and C&S Companies, Syracuse, N.Y., the engineer-of-record and construction manager for the expansion, and C.O. Falter Construction Corp., Syracuse, which did general construction for
A $146-million reservoir project in Florida that was once the pride of utility Tampa Bay Water and engineer HDR Engineering is now the focus of a high-stakes, increasingly public legal battle between the two parties.
Courtesy Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd and NDA Dounreay site, once the core of U.K. nuclear-power research, will be decommissioned. AU.K.-U.S. team has begun final negotiations with British officials to assume ownership and cleanup management of a defunct nuclear research site in Scotland, which would be Britain's second-largest decommissioning project. The team, selected on Nov. 23, is set to take over the Dounreay site in April if it can show how at least $780 million and six years can be cut from the current cleanup effort, which now may cost $4 billion and last until 2038.On Nov. 23, the U.K. Nuclear
Courtesy of Whole Water Systems LLC Utilities often do not allow constructed wetlands and other decentralized treatment systems. Courtesy of the Internatonal Living Future Institute Composting toilet systems are the most environmentally benign of the decentralized wastewater treatment systems studied in a recent report. For cities to be truly sustainable and resilient, wastewater treatment needs to be localized, not centralized, chorused landscape architects and others at the American Society of Landscape Architects' 2011 Annual Meeting & Expo, held on Oct. 29 to Nov. 2 in San Diego.“There is room for improvement in the modern approach to stormwater management,” said Jack
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