The Dept. of Energy has awarded Paris-based Areva Corp. a $2-billion conditional loan guarantee for a greenfield uranium-enrichment plant in Idaho Falls, Idaho—one of the plants needed to help supply the U.S. market with enriched uranium for nuclear powerplants. Photo: Areva Corp. Idaho Falls Facility would cover 400 acres and cost $3.3 billion. The DOE says it has an additional $2 billion for a loan guarantee to support another uranium-enrichment plant, a guarantee for which Bethesda, Md.-based USEC Inc. has said it will re-apply later this year. Areva expects to award an engineering, procurement and construction contract for the 400-acre,

As oil from the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion began spreading into Louisiana’s marshes, state and local leaders moved ahead on plans to protect the state’s shores with a massive sand-berm project­—even without the approval of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard. Photo: U.S. Navy Photo Louisiana National Guard units have been called out to help plug 40 gaps in islands along the coast in an attempt to limit the amount of oil entering the marshes from the April 20 spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Related Links: BP Considers Options To Plug Gusher, Investigates

Some 200 Haitian engineers and engineering students gathered in Port-au-Prince on May 20-22 under a tent in plus-90°F heat to learn about seismic-resistant design and construction. The four introductory courses—which covered topics such as the seismology and seismicity of Haiti, earthquake-resistant design principles and rapid building assessment methodology—were held thanks to an agreement between the University of Quisqueya (UniQ) in Port-au-Prince and the University at Buffalo’s Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (UB-MCEER). Photo: UB-MCEER Seminar tents housed 100 participants each day. Photo: UB-MCEER The introductory seismic program included field evaluation training. Related Links: Congress Moving on Aid for Haiti,

More than four months after a devastating earthquake hit Haiti, Congress is stepping up efforts to provide funds for disaster relief and start rebuilding the country. Lawmakers also are insisting on specific goals and timetables for achieving those reconstruction targets. Photo: fadedyouthblog.com Actor-activist Penn, shown here in Haiti, urged the U.S. to “stay the course.” Related Links: Q&A With Haitian-American Architect- Engineer Yves François U. of Buffalo Seismic Seminar Aimed at Haitian Engineers VIDEO: Habitat for Humanity Experiments VIDEO: Life at the Epicenter of Haitian Quake Rebuilding Haiti Haiti funding hasn’t been enacted yet; congressional action on that front has

After receiving tips, Bay County, Fla., sheriff’s deputies arrested 11 undocumented workers at the Panama City Marina on May 19, 2010, for using stolen Social Security numbers to obtain employment cleaning up the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico Related Links: Louisiana Starts Pushing Sand To Block Oil BP Considers Options To Plug Gusher, Investigates ‘Complex Accident’ Website Channels Oil-Spill Info Bay County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Ruth Corley says BP subcontractors hired the men, who most recently came from South Carolina, Mississippi and other parts of Florida. The men are citizens of Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador and Bolivia, she

Valuable lessons can be learned and possibly applied to modify U.S. seismic design codes and practices from the behavior of structures during the magnitude-8.8 earthquake that rocked Chile on Feb. 27, said the leader of a team representing the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, which visited Chile from April 5-12. In April, ASCE also sent assessment teams from its Coasts, Oceans, Ports and Rivers Institute (COPRI) and its Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering (TCLEE). Photo: ASCE/SEI Assessment Team In Concepción, one side of the Torre O’Higgins Office Building is undamaged as the walls are

BP began conducting the first pressure and diagnostic tests on a five-story blowout preventer (BOP) atop its Macando well bore on May 25 in preparation for a “top kill” attempt to stop the oil that has been gushing from the well and into the Gulf of Mexico since the April 20 explosion. In the “top kill” operation, a vessel will pump drilling mud at a rate of 40 barrels to 50 barrels a minute into two 3-in. choke-and-kill lines at the bottom of the BOP. If the mud stops the oil from coming up the well, concrete then would be

A memorable date for Nashville’s water department will be Memorial Day Weekend, when it expects to put back online the K.R. Harrington Water Treatment Plant, which was under water after the city’s May 1-2 flooding. Image: Nashville.gov City’s future biosolids facility site, rendered above, is adjacent to Central Wastewater Treatment Plant, which serves the downtown area hit by the flood. Northeast of downtown and near the Cumberland River, the plant has a rated capacity of 90 million gallons per day (mgd). Since the plant has been down, the city has been under a mandatory water conservation order because the only

As the consequences unfold of the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the flow of information has become as critical as the movement of the oil slick. One firm’s web-based information management system is having some success in crisis communication for those affected and is gaining wider play among infrastructure managers as an employee-management and business-continuity tool. Photo: U.S. Coast Guard U.S. Coast Guard was the first client of the PIER system. Related Links: Louisiana Starts Pushing Sand To Block Oil BP Considers Options To Plug Gusher, Investigates ‘Complex Accident’ BP Cleanup Subs Were Using Undocumented Workers

The Tennessee Valley Authority will permanently store on-site coal ash that is recovered during the second phase of its cleanup of a failed dredge cell at its Kingston powerplant in Harriman, Tenn. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the plan, which TVA announced on May 18. Photo: TVA Near the TVA powerplant site with a failed ash-disposal cell, dredging of the Emory River is almost complete after 18 months. The first phase of the cleanup, removing coal ash from the nearby Emory River, is wrapping up, with more than 3.32 million cu yd of ash removed from the river