Slow responses from plant vendors have impeded generic design assessments (GDA) of two nuclear reactor types vying for the U.K.’s potentially large “new build” program. In an interim report released on Nov. 7, the U.K. Health & Safety Executive (HSE) lists inadequate submissions in support of the Westinghouse AP1000 and Areva’s EPR reactors. “If we are to complete GDA on time, we need the design companies to work with us and provide the high-quality and timely information we need,” says Kevin Allars, HSE’s director of the assessment. HSE is scheduled to complete the GDAs in June 2011 after 42 months

The next time there is a levee breach in San Joaquin County, Calif., Ronald Baldwin, the county’s director of emergency operations, would like to have some huge rubber tubes pre-positioned at Interstate underpasses, rail embankments and other strategic locations to contain flooding. Photo: Angelle Bergeron In the arch and PLUG combination, flow is first stopped by floating in the incompressible tube, and the arch then is settled around it to create a cofferdam. PLUG can then be removed and repairs made. Graphic: Oceaneering Inc Photo: Angelle Bergeron The arch-tube configuration can be used to block off larger waterways, as long

Zerofootprint, a Toronto, Canada-based organization dedicated to fighting climate change, has announced a contest in which the winner will get $10 million for redoing an older concrete high-rise structure and, using re-skinning along with other retrofitting technologies, reduce its carbon, water and energy footprint to net zero. To secure the ZEROprize, a candidate building will be required to have a net-zero footprint for one year. Details for the contest can be found at http://www.zerofootprint.net/images/uploads/ZEROprize.pdf.

Sacramento Municipal Utility District is leading the national shift to �smart grid� networks with help from a $127-million stimulus grant. Photo: SMUD In June, SMUD hired Greenville, South Carolina-based Utility Partners of America, Inc. for $7.5 million to replace the smattering of 620,000 electromechanical and first-generation solid-state meters with Landis+Gyr smart meters that collect usage information digitally in real time from 50,000 demand-response, control relay access points. The digital meters will allow customers who generate their own energy using solar or wind turbines to act as micro-generators and sell power to the grid. The devices could also improve customer service

A federal court judge in New Orleans who found the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers liable for damages claimed by five residents of an area inundated during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 limits the area to which his decision applies. But Judge Standwood R. Duval Jr. also blasts the Corps for putting lives and property at risk for decades by failing to properly operate and maintain a navigational channel it built between 1956 and 1968 below New Orleans. He further faults the Corps for failing to comply with the National Environmental Protection Act of 1969 for reporting on environmental degradation caused

New York State Dept. of Transportation officials swiftly are preparing design concepts for a new crossing to replace the Crown Point Bridge, abruptly closed in October due to unexpectedly high levels of pier deterioration. Meanwhile, contractors are racing to build temporary vehicular ferry-terminal facilities at Lake Champlain between New York and Vermont as a stopgap measure. Photo: AP/Wideworld New York-Vermont crossing was shut down abruptly on Oct. 16 after inspectors found unexpectedly severe pier deterioration, possibly due to ice pressure. + Image NYSDOT, in conjunction with the Vermont Agency of Transportation, on Oct. 16 shut down the 80-year-old, 2,184-ft-long steel

The U.S. Energy Dept. on Nov. 23 announced it will award $18 million to 107 small businesses to research, develop and deploy clean-energy technologies. The companies were selected competitively from 950 applicants based on near-term commercialization and job-creation prospects. Funding is from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Firms with successful results are eligible for $60 million in additional grants.

The Dept. of Energy has selected 32 projects to receive a total of $620 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to advance and evaluate new technologies to make the nation's electricity grid more effective. The DOE funding will be complemented by more than $1 billion in private-sector matching funds for those projects. Related Links: Smart Grid Demo List Grid Modernization Will Mean Construction DOE Awards $3.4 Billion for 'Smart Grid' Upgrades The "smart grid" funding awards, announced Nov. 24, include energy-storage pilot projects, as well as plans that involve smart metering and distribution and transmission monitoring equipment. If

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Nov. 23 issued a court-ordered final rule that, for the first time, sets national monitoring requirements and numeric limits on construction-site stormwater runoff. Under the rule, builders on sites that disturb 10 or more acres at one time must comply with specific limits on discharge of soil and sediment into nearby water bodies. Owners and operators of sites that disturb one or more acres must use erosion- and sediment-control best-management practices to reduce stormwater discharge pollutants. EPA issued the rule in response to a 2004 lawsuit. It will phase in the rule over four

Hundreds of bridges across Cumbria County in England were under review following the Nov. 20 flooding resulting from the highest rainfall in a 24-hour period on record in the U.K. The flooding caused the collapse of six bridges and the death of one police officer. One of the larger bridges to fail was the 50-meter-long, two-span, brick-built road bridge over the Derwent River in Workington. Official says the bridge was inspected and declared sound in July 2008. The town’s second bridge, the Calva, was closed because of serious damage. Photo: AP/Wideworld/Peter Byrne