Oyster Creek nuke station in NJ taken off line again

Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey, NJ
Patricia A. Miller reports for Brick Patch:
Lacey Township (NJ) – Plant operators at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station took the troubled plant offline today to address problems with the main turbine control systems, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.
“Exelon sought to repair turbine control valve mechanical linkages, which allow operators to adjust the valves remotely, and the unit was at reduced power during this work,” NRC spokesman Neil R. Sheehan said. “However, the company has since determined it needs to shut down the plant to address the issue.”
The plant automatically shut down – which is referred to as a scram – on Nov. 20, due to a fault in the turbine control system. It went back online at 85 percent power in late November for troubleshooting and repairs to continue to address, the turbine control instability issues.
The turbine is considered to be on the “non-nuclear” side of the plant, which means it has a primary role is for power production and is not directly involved in the fissioning process.
The turbine control valves regulate the amount of steam flowing into the turbine. That steam turns the turbine and generates electricity that is sent out to the grid.
The NRC Resident Inspectors assigned to Oyster Creek on a full-time basis continue to follow up on the repair work and restart planning, he said.
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Shhh! Don’t tell Trump but the Arctic’s going crazy

By Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer:

WASHINGTON
(AP) — Warming at the top of the world has gone into overdrive, happening
twice as fast as the rest of the globe, and extending unnatural heating into
fall and winter, according to a new federal report.

In its annual Arctic Report Card , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration on Tuesday tallied record after record of high temperatures, low
sea ice, shrinking ice sheets and glaciers. Study lead author Jeremy Mathis,
NOAA’s Arctic research chief, said it shows long-term Arctic warming trends
deepening and becoming more obvious, with a disturbing creep into seasons
beyond summer, when the Arctic usually rebuilds snow and ice.

Scientists have long said man-made climate change would hit the
Arctic fastest. Mathis and others said the data is
showing that is what’s now happening.

“Personally, I would have to say that this last year has
been the most extreme year for the Arctic that I have ever seen,” said
Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder,
Colorado, who wasn’t part of the 106-page report. “It’s crazy.”

NOAA’s peer-reviewed report said air temperatures over the
Arctic from October 2015 to September 2016 were “by far the highest in the
observational record beginning in 1900.” The average Arctic air
temperature at that time was 3.6 degrees (2 degrees Celsius) warmer than the
1981-2010 average. It’s 6.3 degrees (3.5 degrees Celsius) warmer than 1900.

Read the full story here 


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Google search car tracking down leaky PSE&G gas pipes

Google Street View car equipped with methane detectors (Photo: PSE&G)

James M. O’Neil reports for The Record:


To prioritize which aging gas mains to replace, the utility used a Google Street View car equipped with methane sensors.

PSE&G collaborated on the leak detection effort with the Environmental Defense Fund, Google and Colorado State University. The utility learned about work EDF and Google had done mapping gas leaks in Boston and Indianapolis, and asked to work together to do the same in North Jersey.
The EDF collaborators have since mapped gas leaks in Dallas, Syracuse, Los Angeles, Chicago, Pittsburgh and elsewhere. This was the first project in which the EDF group worked directly with a utility to map out leaks.
The PSE&G gas main replacement project is designed to improve safety, waste less gas and reduce emissions of methane — the main component of natural gas — that contribute to climate change.
“Reducing methane emissions is one of the quickest ways we have to protect the climate,” said EDF President Fred Krupp. “It takes courage to invite an environmental group to come sniffing around for leaks in their system. By tackling these leaks faster, PSE&G will achieve a lot more environmental benefit for their infrastructure dollars.”
The typical cost of replacing a mile of gas line in the PSE&G system is about $1.5 million to $2 million, according to the company.
The company used the Google Street View car to gather millions of readings over hundreds of miles of roadway in Bergen, Passaic, Hudson and Essex counties. The car was used in Fort Lee, Edgewater, Paramus, Ridgewood, Wayne, Fairview, Northvale, Paterson, Clifton and Passaic, as well as other towns.
There are four Google Street View cars specially equipped with the technology developed by EDF, Google and Colorado State University.
The technology not only allows volume to be measured with great precision, but also maps the leaks. EDF, Google and CSU spent five years putting the technology, the data processing and the analytical expertise together in one package.
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Wheel weights, paint recycling and dredging bills advance

lead wheel weights


The New Jersey Assembly’s Environment and Solid Waste Committee this afternoon approved and released the following bills:


A-261, sponsored by Assemblyman John McKeon (D-Essex), prohibits the installation and sale of wheel weights containing lead or mercury. The bill also prohibits sale of new motor vehicles equipped with wheel weights containing lead or mercury. The bill was released on a 5-0 vote.  Here’s what the sponsor had to say about it 


A-1373, sponsored by Assemblyman Tim Eustace (D-Bergen), requires paint manufacturers to establish a recycling program for used consumer paint. 


The bill was released on a 4-1 vote with a paint manufacturers organization and several recycling and environmental groups in support.  


A-4152 , sponsored by Assemblyman Bob Andrzejczak(D-Cape May), limits application of DEP shellfish habitat rules for certain dredging activities.

The bill would eliminate the current requirement for pre-dredging testing for shellfish habitats when the dredging would be undertaken in limited areas near marinas. The bill would not apply to new development or to an expansion of any water-dependent development.  A person dredging would have to obtain all other required state and federal permits and approvals for the dredging.


The legislation was released 5-0. 
  
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Philly ex-congressman Fattah draws a decade in prison

Former Congressman Chaka Fatah sentenced to jail (AP photo)
Anna Orso reports for BillyPenn:

A federal judge sentenced former U.S. Congressman Chaka Fattah to spend a decade in prison and pay $614,000 in restitution to victims of corruption charges on which the longtime legislator was convicted this summer.

For 22 years, Fattah represented Pennsylvania’s second congressional district and has long been one of the top politicians in the city of Philadelphia. In open court today, moments before handing down his sentence, U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III called Fattah’s crimes “astonishing” and said “political corruption in high places is a grave matter.

“Those in high places,” Bartle said, “will certainly know what happened in this courtroom today.”

The judge said Fattah is to surrender into federal custody on Jan. 25; however, his attorneys have indicated they will appeal his conviction and asked for bail pending that appeal.

Fattah said during a brief statement to the court that he regrets some of his decisions that led to criminal charges, saying the investigation and the trial has been the “most disappointing” event in his life. He first asked the judge for leniency for his co-defendants, and then said he has “regret” for his constituents.

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School district tackles huge drinking-water testing project


Karen Wall reports for the Brick Patch:

William J. Kolibas Jr. opened a fat binder sitting on the table.

“This is all the information we have to compile,” said Kolibas, director of facilities for the Brick Township (NJ) School District. “The government requires a lot of paperwork.”
The paperwork is for the district’s screening of its drinking water for lead. Lead contamination in schools’ drinking water exploded as a concern roughly 18 months ago, when children in Flint, Michigan, were becoming sick from lead poisoning, the result of lead leaching into the water in their homes and schools.
The crisis in Flint stirred concerns across the country and led to testing of water in some of New Jersey’s inner-city schools; results from 30 schools in Newark found lead levels as high as 35 times above the federal action limit of 15 parts per billion, according to a report in NJ.com. In May, Gov. Chris Christie announced that all of the state’s 3,000 schools would be tested for lead exposure, and the state appropriated $10 million to help cover the costs.
 The 15ppb is set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the maximum allowable level, as lead in drinking water can have serious health impacts, especially for children.

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With the regulations and testing protocols in hand, Brick Township has been moving forward with testing at the district’s 12 schools to address issues and fix them immediately.
“As soon as we got the regulations from the state, in August or September, we got moving,” interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella said Friday morning during an interview at the district’s administration building. “We wanted to get out in front of it.”
The district has had testing conducted through an independent private consultant with assistance from the Brick Township MUA, which Gialanella said offered the best price.
So far, the district has tested three schools: Lake Riviera Middle School, Drum Point Elementary School, and Midstreams Elementary School. Four more — Warren Wolf, Emma Havens Young, Osbornville and Herbertsville — will be tested after winter break, probably in mid-January, with the remaining schools — Brick Township High School, Brick Memorial High School, Veterans Memorial Middle School, Veterans Memorial Elementary School and Lanes Mill Elementary School — tested in February. 
The final five schools will likely be broken down into two groups because the high schools are so much larger than the other schools, Kolibas said. The protocols also urge the testing of schools with younger children first, and then older children, as younger children are more at risk from lead because of their smaller bodies and metabolisms.
It is a complex, detailed process.
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