An Aug. 13 agreement between state and Federal authorities resolves long-standing issues and promises to remove bureaucratic obstacles to the restoration of the Everglades in South Florida under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). The �master agreement� establishes uniform terms and conditions for the project partnership agreements under which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District will cooperate and share costs for the CERP projects. Photo: South Florida Water Management District Master Agreement will release $65 million for Picayune Strand construction, where canals were plugged and streets demolished a few years ago to restore
On the road to the “nuclear renaissance,” Canada’s nuclear-power industry hit a speed bump. Declining electricity demand has scotched plans to add as much as 7,200 MW of greenfield nuclear powerplants in Ontario. But even as it withdrew applications for eight new reactors at two sites, the country’s largest independent generator pledged to complete refurbishment of two laid-up units on its flagship site and to continue developing new nuclear powerplants in Saskatchewan and Alberta. If built, the plants in those provinces would be western Canada’s first nuclear plants. Photo: Babcock & Wilcox Canada Ltd. Babcock & Wilcox Canada is supplying
To break the routine of cost and schedule overruns in Canadian nuclear construction, the operator of North America’s largest nuclear powerplant hopes to combine U.S. nuclear project management expertise with Canadian engineering and construction skills in a company to target construction in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada. It could be ready for business by next year. Photo: Bruce Power L.P. Sauger (center) is negotiating. The company is in “the formative stages,” says John Sauger, senior vice president for Bruce Power Ltd., Tiverton, Ontario. “The concept is a holding company, structured as a limited-liability partnership.” With managers from U.S. nuclear contractors
For more than 50 years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has extended the frontiers of human experience, with audacious landings on the moon, the research of Skylab, the far-seeing eye of Hubble and the reduction of space travel to something so routine a successful space-shuttle launch rates little more than a minute of the evening news. Now, NASA is exploring a frontier it has never encountered before: possible budget shortfalls. When NASA shuts down the shuttle program next year, astronauts wanting to do their part on the International Space Station will have to hitch a ride on a Russian
The contractor in the December 2007 collapse of a Jacksonville, Fla., parking garage during construction is claiming exoneration by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for responsibility in the catastrophe. A laborer died, and 23 other workers were injured. But OSHA insists that the case remains open, despite the agency’s formal settlement with the contractor. Photo: Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Dept. Garage-collapse case still open. In June 2008, OSHA concluded its investigation into the collapse of the Berkman Plaza II parking structure and proposed penalties totaling $192,800 against Choate Construction Co., Atlanta, the general contractor; Southern Pan Services, Lithonia, Ga.,
If you’re not in the electricity business today, you may be soon. Developments in generation technologies, regulatory policies, industry standards and digital communication are blurring the distinction between customers and utilities. Renewable-energy generation, primarily solar photovoltaic panels installed on privately owned rooftops throughout the country, is serving load under the roofs, with surplus power being sold into the grid. Utilities also are leasing rooftop real estate on warehouses and big-box stores to site their own PV panels. Slide Show Photo: Southern California Edison Warehouse rooftop will generate 2 MW for Southern California Edison’s grid. Related Links: Smart Grid Will Give
Brilliant minds—Nikola Tesla, Thomas A. Edison—and great engineers produced the marvel of the electric grid. It has united and fed the vast complex that is modern industrial and post-industrial society. But like the Scarecrow in Oz, the grid lacks a brain. Advances in electronics, communication and information technology now are enabling engineers to give the grid a brain. In the last decade, grassroots initiatives have sprung up around the country to create what has come to be called the smart grid. In a smart grid, sensors can anticipate system disturbances and respond to them before they cripple the system. Communication
Engineers, contractors and owners are boarding the Energy Dept.’s $32.7- billion gravy train, augmented by $12.5 billion in loan programs, as it leaves Washington, D.C. Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s last job was as director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His familiarity with the condition of lab facilities may be why DOE is pouncing on the $1.6 billion in funds appropriated by ARRA, with half earmarked for construction, infrastructure, equipment acquisition and research at nine national laboratories in seven states (see table below). The largest share for a single project is $150 million to accelerate construction on the National Synchrotron Light
Bowing to the realities of a severely weakened economy and a ballooning budget deficit, the state of Florida has drastically revised its proposed purchase of agricultural land in the Everglades Agricultural Area south of Lake Okeechobee. + Image Photo: South Florida Water Management District Buying only 72,500 acres now, Florida has an option to complete a planned purchase of 180,000 acres within 10 years. The state’s goal continues to be “to connect Lake Okeechobee with Florida Bay and restore the natural flow” of water that created and sustained the vast Everglades ecosystem for thousands of years, said Gov. Charlie Crist
In a twist on the proverb “Set a thief to catch a thief,” physicists at the University of Texas at Austin have designed a system to facilitate the disposal of spent nuclear fuel that combines nuclear fission with fusion. The hybrid system will destroy 99% of the spent fuel, and the waste that remains will be less toxic than the spent fuel now accumulating in storage at nuclear powerplants around the country, the researchers say. President Barack Obama’s decision to halt further development of the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository in Nevada and “devise a new strategy toward nuclear-waste disposal” has