The Tennessee Valley Authority this week plans to begin pouring the concrete foundation for a 12,000 sq ft building that the designer is calling a “finger of God build.”The reinforced concrete building is meant to withstand a 10,000-year earthquake. “We hope we don’t see it tested, but if it is we hope it stays,” says Robert Feiel, project engineer for Mesa Associates, Knoxville.The diverse and flexible coping capability building, or FLEX, was developed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from the lessons learned in nuclear plant safety as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011. It provides an
Photo Courtesy of MESA Associates The NRC is requiring containment structure for Watt's Bar reactor before licensure. The Tennessee Valley Authority was set to begin pouring the concrete foundation in late August for a 12,000-sq-ft reactor containment structure at its Brown's Ferry nuclear powerplant in Alabama that is being designed to withstand a 10,000-year earthquake and 300-mph winds. Specifications for the building, known as FLEX, were developed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from lessons learned after the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan."It's an entirely new layer of protection to be used for a beyond-design flood, earthquake or tornado," says
Related Links: Information on Power Africa initiative White House fact sheet on new additional commitments and goals Africa’s electric-power infrastructure is set to receive an enormous boost over the next four years, thanks to new government and public-sector commitments of nearly $14 billion announced at a recent summit of African and U.S. officials in Washington, D.C.The summit, held Aug. 4-6, drew some 50 African heads of state, ministers and business executives, who met with President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, congressional leaders and other officials to discuss partnerships with government and nongovernmental organizations.A key development was Obama's Aug. 5
Related Links: Greens Niinist calls for govt to reconsider Rosatom for nuclear plant Russia Moving To Expand Global Nuclear Power Market Share More scrutiny from the European Parliament and tighter economic sanctions imposed against Russia for its role in Ukraine’s civil war could threaten the international construction portfolio of state-owned nuclear power firm Rosatom, which the company says will reach $100 billion in 2014. Finnish political leaders have called to stop an $8.4-billion nuclear power project in northern Finland, in which Rosatom has a 34% ownership stake. As the project waits to receive final approval from Finland’s Parliament in September,
PPL Electric Utilities, Allentown, Pa., unveiled plans on July 31 for a 725-mile, 500-kV transmission line that would carry shale-gas-generated power from western Pennsylvania's Marcellus region into New Jersey and New York and south to Maryland. The project could cost between $4 billion to $6 billion in construction, said PPL.The project has a number of potential benefits, including improved reliability, added substation security and reduced congestion in the region, PPL President Gregory Dudkin said during a conference call with analysts.He noted that the project also would reduce the cost to connect potential generation built in the region to the transmission
Photo Courtesy of Kenya Pipeline Co. The 450-km, 20-in.-dia pipeline will link East Africa's trade gateway of Mombasa to Kenyas capital, Nairobi. Related Links: $650-Million Airport Project in Kenya Breaks Ground New Phase for Alaska's Massive LNG Pipeline Project Lebanese family-owned firm Zakhem International Construction is set to build a $490-million multi-product oil pipeline in Kenya after a petition challenging the award of the contract was thrown out in mid-July by a government procurement agency.The 450-kilometer, 20-in.-dia pipeline linking East Africa's trade gateway of Mombasa to Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, will ease transportation of fuel to the land-locked economies of Uganda,
Related Links: Gas-Fired Projects Are Gaining Momentum Fertilizer Plants Popping Up Across Grain Belt Nigeria and Tanzania have approved plans for the construction of fertilizer production plants, now at different stages of development, as they seek private project developers to capitalize on their huge natural gas resources.West-Africa focused consortium Brass Fertilizer Company signed a deal with Engineers India Limited in late May to provide project management services for its upcoming integrated green field gas-based fertilizer complex comprising of urea/methanol plant at Brass Island, Nigeria. The value of the consultancy contract could not be immediately confirmed.Brass Fertilizer Company investors include a
Related Links: Pipeline Opponents Say Project Is No Longer Economically Justifiable PSB halts Vermont Gas pipeline project along VELCO route Vermont Gas's contentious natural-gas pipeline extension to connect service areas in Chittenden and Franklin counties is temporarily on hold. The Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) on July 25 ordered the utility to halt construction until it filed a soil management plan.Opponents allege construction in VELCO's transmission-line corridor could possibly release hazardous chemicals present in the soil. Pentachlorophenol (PCP), a wood preservative used to treat utility poles, has been detected near the pipeline route in a Monkton resident's well, according to
Courtesy of Paresa SpA Refinery upgrade in Algiers, Algeria, is set for completion by year-end under a $908-million contract, awarded in 2010 to Paris-based Technip. Africa is poised to expand its crude refining capacity by an additional 1.6 million barrels per day when refinery projects underway in four countries are completed and operating. Despite competition from cheap fuel imports, viability questions related to small regional refinery projects and unreliable crude-oil supply, Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda are proceeding with plans to increase their crude refining capacities to wean themselves off reliance on imports.Algeria’s state-owned oil firm Sonatrach Petroleum has
Tax-incentive packages being awarded by municipalities and states to manufacturers to locate big projects are including local-hire requirements for construction labor that contractors say can be tough to meet."Most owners receive state incentives and support to attract these projects, and that puts the challenge on us to find local subcontractors who are qualified and have capacity," says Chris Morgan, project manager at Michigan-based Walbridge Construction. "The difficulty varies by the state or region."Before starting work in 2012 on the first $975-million phase of the Benteler Steel plant near Shreveport, La., Walbridge knew it had to meet local hiring mandates for
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