Monday, November 26, 2012

BP makes gas discovery offshore Trinidad

bp-makes-gas-discovery-offshore-trinidad.html

New DoD website named Defense Innovation Marketplace

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New Market. The Pentagon has launched an experimental website dubbed the Defense Innovation Marketplace
(http://www.defenseinnovationmarketplace.mil/) that it describes as “a centralized online resource to better connect industry with government customers to invigorate innovation.” Part of the Pentagon’s Better Buying Initiative, the site says it is intended to be the place for industry to “learn about Department of Defense investment priorities and capability needs, and comply with the new Defense Federal Acquisition Supplement (DFARs) rule.” The marketplace could eliminate the need for some conferences, Jack Blackhurst, director of the Human Effectiveness Directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, tells American Forces Press Service. "There's a wealth of information that doesn't exist anywhere else," he says. The site was created to address communication issues between industry and the Pentagon, Ron Kurjanowicz, senior adviser to the secretary of defense for research and engineering, tells AFPS. “Industry needs to know where DoD is making its changes, so they can align their investments with the capabilities of the future,” he says. The site is updated nearly every day.

ANS Update: TN-Chattanooga participants recognized at ANS Winter Conference

TN-Chattanooga participants recognized at ANS Winter Conference

By lscheele on Nov 26, 2012 01:20 am

In September 2012, American Nuclear Society members in the Tennessee Valley area turned out in record numbers to support an ANS presence at a public hearing in order to inform the public and media about the nonproliferation benefits of the … Continue reading →
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The 132nd Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers

By pbowersox on Nov 25, 2012 04:40 pm

The 132nd weekly Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is posted at The Hiroshima Syndrome. This week’s topics include: Russia’s full-scale push to become totally nuclear by 2100; families of Vermont Yankee employees share what it feels like to be faced … Continue reading →
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Defense Daily's Biofuels and DoD Webinar on December 4th

Don’t miss Defense Daily’s Biofuels and DoD Webinar on December 4th

December 4, 2012
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM ET

Register Today

Confirmed panelists include:


Retired Navy Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn President and CEO American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)	Mike Ritzenthaler Senior Research Analyst Piper Jaffray

Phyllis Cuttino Director of Clean Energy Program Pew Environment Group	Glenn Johnston Executive VP of Regulatory Affairs Gevo Inc.

Defense Daily invites you to join this timely discussion concerning the outlook for biofuels.

Please Register Now.

IHS CERAWeek 2013

We invite you to register now
for CERAWeek 2013 to take advantage of special pricing in effect until November 30th. What will be the new map of global energy supply? The energy landscape is undergoing dramatic and rapid change in the wake of new supplies from North and South America, Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean. Meanwhile, increasing geopolitical instability and continuing economic austerity are creating considerable uncertainty – and new risks. How will these forces impact markets, future investment, costs and industry strategies? CERAWeek in Houston March 4-8, 2013 will address these key questions.
CERAWeek offers a unique integrated picture of the energy future – encompassing all sectors -- natural gas, power, coal, and renewables – on a regional and global basis. Sessions cover key topics ranging from markets to technology, geopolitics, regulation, and strategy.

We hope you join us in Houston in March for this important and timely event.

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To enroll, or for more information please visit: www.ceraweek.com

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**************************************** If you have any questions, please contact us by phone at +1 888 271 5313 or email at ceraweek@ihs.com.

US NRC Blog Update: The Mystery of the AEC Trowel - Part 1

U.S. NRC Blog

The Mystery of the Atomic Energy Commission Trowel — Part I

by Moderator

“Is it radioactive?” That’s not a typical question your spouse asks when you come home with your winnings from a silent auction. But Joe Ball, of West Caldwell, New Jersey, wasn't holding a set of steak knives or a reservation for a time-share in Reno. The innocuous looking mason’s trowel he won had links back to the very beginning of the atomic age.

While attending his class-of-1972 reunion for the now defunct Eisenhower College in Seneca Falls, New York, old items from the college were sold to the alumni at a silent auction. Ball's trowel sat inside a well-constructed Plexiglas display case appointed with fine velvet and a handsome wooden box. A plaque claimed that the trowel was one of three copies made for Dwight Eisenhower to use on November 8, 1957, to lay the cornerstone for the new Atomic Energy Commission building in Germantown, Md.

The trowel's parts were full of symbolism, the plaque reported. The blade was made from uranium taken from the CP-1 reactor, which, under Fermi, achieved the world's first sustained chain reaction at the University of Chicago on December 2, 1942.

The handle was crafted from wood taken from Chicago's Stagg Field under which the reactor was built. The zirconium ferrule and stem came from the first fuel assembly of the Navy’s revolutionary nuclear powered attack submarine, the Nautilus.

At some unspecified date, the AEC and Argonne National Laboratory donated the trowel to Eisenhower College, where it made its way to Ball – who won it with a $10 bid.

Many of his fellow alums were wary the trowel might be radioactive or doubted it was real. One quipped it would be hard to get the case through airport security. Ball eventually called the NRC’s Office of Public Affairs to check out its safety and authenticity. He was particularly concerned about mysterious black shavings scattered about inside the display case. OPA knew I’d be interested in the historic background of the trowel, and so I got involved. First, I directed him to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to have the case and shavings surveyed. They found the shavings were uranium, but detected no radiation coming from the display case.

I was intrigued. Given the trowel's use and composition, this was an extraordinary, museum-worthy find. I drove up to Joe's home, took photos, and went to work researching the trowel's history. I located one of the other trowels on display at Argonne Lab’s small museum. Its plaque was virtually identical to Ball's, except that it claimed there were only two copies. The Eisenhower Library in Kansas, however, reported that it too owned a trowel from the dedication ceremony. Having three trowels made sense since Eisenhower was assisted in the ceremony by AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss and Senator Carl Durham of North Carolina.

But not all of the details about the trowel were so easily reconciled. Uranium metal was at a premium in 1942. Why was this uranium not reused in later reactors? Why did the detailed news accounts of the ceremony make no mention of the unique features of the trowels? Eisenhower’s itinerary for the ceremony reported that the president would use a “silver-plated trowel” to lay the cornerstone. Neither Ball’s nor Argonne’s trowel was plated. Were they fakes? If so, why did the New Jersey radiation office confirm that the shavings were uranium? I realized there was a hidden story behind the one written on the plaques. . . . Wednesday, we’ll have the rest of the story for you!

Thomas Wellock

NRC Historian

Moderator | November 26, 2012 at 10:55 am | Tags: nuclear | Categories: General | URL: http://wp.me/p1fSSY-Tr

PennEnergy Top Oil & Gas News 11/27

Top Oil & Gas News

PennEnergy Video News Update
From the Black Elk oil rig explosion , to to Statoil’s Hammerfest LNG shutdown , to manslaughter charges levied against two BP Deepwater employees , all of the week's biggest headlines are in the PennEnergy Video News Update.
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2 dead, 2 missing after offshore Louisiana oil rig explosion
Two people are dead, two are missing, and another four have been hospitalized after an explosion on an inactive Black Elk Energy oil production platform off the coast of Louisiana.
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This Week's Most Popular Oil & Gas News
• Body found in water near offshore oil rig may be missing worker
• BP employees charged with manslaughter for Deepwater Horizon incident
• Production resumes on Troll C offshore oil platform
• Dialog, Halliburton enter $1.2B Bayan Field development deal
• Obama faces a 'tough choice' between natural gas, renewable energy
• Proven Method for Assessing the Value of a Digital Oilfield Investment - Part 3
• China hopes to become major producer of natural gas
• Rig count in Utica Shale doubles from year ago
• Subsea 7 wins $70MM North Sea contract
• Major chemical maker to increase oil and gas production

Gundersen on WHO:

Gundersen on WHO: I don’t trust their data — Garbage in, garbage out — I suspect hot particles and internal emitters are omitted, and radioactive releases underestimatedhttp://enenews.com/gundersen-dont-trust-data-garbage-garbage-suspect-hot-particles-internal-emitters-left-radioactive-releases-underestimated

Chris Hedges on Climate Change

Chris Hedges on Climate Change
"Stand Still For the Apocalypse" -- Humans must immediately implement a series of radical measures to halt carbon emissions or prepare for the collapse of entire ecosystems and the displacement, suffering and death of hundreds of millions of the globe's inhabitants, according to a report commissioned by the World Bank.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/stand_still_for_the_apocalypse_20121126/

Kristol’s Thanksgiving Meditation Makes Central Role of Israel in Neo-Conservatism Clear

http://www.lobelog.com/kristols-thanksgiving-meditation-makes-central-role-of-israel-in-neo-conservatism-clear/

Kristol’s Thanksgiving Meditation Makes Central Role of Israel in Neo-Conservatism Clear

For those, particularly in the timid or intimidated U.S. foreign-policy elite, who still pretend or somehow make themselves believe that Israel is not absolutely central to the neo-conservative worldview, I commend this week’s Thanksgiving editorial by Bill Kristol, scion of one of the movement’s two founding families, in The Weekly Standard, entitled “The West Fights Back”. While it deserves to be read — and deconstructed — in full, here’s the meat:

For what the West stands against is terror—whether the terror of modern secular totalitarianism or the terror of an older, and now revitalized, religious fanaticism. From the Great Terrors of Stalin and Hitler to the attacks on New York and Tel Aviv, and on Madrid, Bali, and Mumbai, terrorists of all stripes know who their enemies are. They attack across the world and kill Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike—but they grasp that the centers of resistance, the nations that stand most squarely in their path, are the United States and Israel.
And so these two very different nations—Christian and Jewish, large and small, new world and old (though the new world nation is older than its newly reborn old world counterpart)—find themselves allied. More than allied: They find themselves joined at the hip in a brotherhood that is more than a diplomatic or political or military alliance. Everyone senses that the ties are deeper than those of mere allies. Israelis know that if the United States fails, so shall Israel. Americans sense, in the words of Eric Hoffer, “as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us.”

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Pete's Blog: Comparing China's energy plans with Australia's

Pete's Blog: Comparing China's energy plans with Australia's
The contrast with China's Energy White Paper could not be starker. China clearly views its energy security as the most fundamental feature of its future prosperity ...
gentleseas.blogspot.com/.../comparing-chinas-energy-plans-wi...

MIT African teen guest fashions battery, plans windmill (w/ video)

MIT African teen guest fashions battery, plans windmill (w/ video)
(Phys.org)—An inventor in his teen years has been on a three-week visit to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a guest resident. From university officers to labs workers, to bloggers, Americans enjoyed the chance to get to know him better as he got to know his way around university life in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the youngest invite ever to MIT's Visiting Practitioner's Program for international development. A 16-year-old from Sierra Leone, he is a self-taught engineer. He never took any engineering or electronics class, but at 13 figured out how to make a battery suitable enough to power his family home. Kelvin Doe told his interviewers that "I love inventing." Never mind that the things he made have been from bits and pieces found around the house and from electronic parts found in dustbins which he used to head toward after school. That is how he made the first Doe battery http://phys.org/news/2012-11-mit-african-teen-guest-fashions.html#nwlt

The 132nd Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers

by pbowersox

http://ansnuclearcafe.org/2012/11/25/17561/

The 132nd weekly Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is posted at The Hiroshima Syndrome. This week’s topics include: Russia’s full-scale push to become totally nuclear by 2100; families of Vermont

Yankee employees share what it feels like to be faced with uncertainty about the extension of a nuclear power plant operating license; how emotions should favor nuclear energy; how it seems nuclear energy isn’t that big a political issue in Japan; and natural gas… being more dangerous than nuclear energy. For the full reports, see The Hiroshima Syndrome (the internet’s top source for Fukushima updates and commentary).
The Carnival is the collective voice of blogs by well-respected names that emerge each week to tell the story of nuclear energy.
If you want to hear the voice of the nuclear renaissance, the Carnival of Nuclear Energy Blogs is where to find it.
The publication of the Carnival each week is part of a commitment by the leading pro-nuclear bloggers in North America to speak with a collective voice on the issue of the value of nuclear energy.
While we each have our own points of view, we agree that the promise of peaceful uses of the atom remains viable in our own time and for the future.
Past editions of the carnival have been hosted at Yes Vermont Yankee, Atomic Power Review, ANS Nuclear Cafe, Idaho Samizdat, NEI Nuclear Notes, Next Big Future, EntrepreNuke, and CoolHandNuke, as well as several other popular nuclear energy blogs.
If you have a pro-nuclear energy blog and would like to host an edition of the carnival, please contact Brain Wang at Next Big Future to get on the rotation.
This is a great collaborative effort that deserves your support. Please post a Tweet, a Facebook entry, or a link on your Web site or blog to support the carnival.

Have US Coal Prices Bottomed?

by (Hadaf Zubi)

Definitely maybe. While the jury’s still out on the Uinta Basin, prices for Appalachian and Illinois/Powder River Basin coal look to have begun recovering after dropping to long-term support levels following the achievement of post-2009 highs in October 2011. The interesting point about this price movement is that of the 5 major US coal categories, all but Uinta basin coal have set 2012 lows that are higher than their 2009 lows. None of this indicates that coal prices can’t go lower in the future, but recent price action…Read more...http://oilprice.com/Finance/investing-and-trading-reports/Have-US-Coal-Prices-Bottomed.html

What Happens IF Cold Fusion Does Become Reality?

by burgessj@oilprice.com (James Burgess)

Mark Gibbs recently wrote a very interesting article for Forbes titled “Cold Fusion and Unintended Consequences”, discussing the unintended side effects that could potentially occur if cold fusion really takes off in the way that many hope it will.We are talking about years into the future, when cold fusion exists as a practical technology that can provide huge amounts of cheap electricity. Devices would cost little and provide populations around the world with abundant energy.In the future that we are imagining cold fusion devices…Read more...http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/What-Happens-IF-Cold-Fusion-Does-Become-Reality.html

Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Monday, November 26, 2012