St. Andrew, Jamaica Meteor 4NOV2011

St. Andrew, Jamaica Meteor ~6:45 pm 4NOV2011
-Caroline M  Thank you Caroline; any more details?

More reports?
Date and Time of event? Location name (town,city) where you were when saw the meteor? Start and Stop location in sky? Direction of movement? Duration of Event (seconds)? Brightness ( in comparison with Venus, Moon, Sun) color, sounds? Photos? Videos? please email LunarMeteoriteHunter@

Where Goes Solar, There Goes Nuclear?

This MIT Technology Review article is good but gets off on the wrong foot:

Politicians are drawing parallels between the $535 million federal loan guarantee issued to bankrupt solar manufacturer Solyndra and loan guarantees that the U.S. Department of Energy is offering to utilities building new nuclear power plants. But while those nuclear startups could also go bust, experts say U.S. taxpayers are unlikely to take a loss on them. That's because the only reactor projects moving forward are those in a handful of southern states, where laws allow utilities to offload the risk onto state ratepayers.

Offload the risk? All the risk of any large electricity project redounds to the ratepayers – because they pay the bills. What those southern companies are doing is using a method that pays for plant construction as it goes along – which means less money borrowed from banks or paid back to banks – and thus less interest charges for ratepayers to eventually absorb.

Here’s how Southern Co. explains this in relation to the Plant Vogtle project:

• The cost of the plant will be phased-in over 7 years, versus included in rates over only two years. (Approx. 1.3 percent/yr over 7 years for total of 9 percent, versus approximately 12 percent total over two years.)
• Customers will avoid paying $300 million in interest charges, thereby saving money over the life of the plant.
• The in-service cost of the plant will be reduced by nearly $2 billion (30 percent).
• Total rate increases required to cover the cost of the plant when it goes into service will be nearly 3 percent lower.
• Preserving utility credit ratings reduces costs for other projects and helps keep customer rates low.

The MIT story is interesting in that it explains how this use of pay-as-you-go differs in regulated and non-regulated states and what the implications of that might be for nuclear energy projects.

It still comes back around to loan guarantees:

While the Solyndra case appears unlikely to be replicated with nuclear loan guarantees, political attacks from Congressional Republicans on the wisdom of loan guarantees for energy projects may, ironically, hurt the prospects for further nuclear projects that many support.

We’ll just have to wait and see, but those Congressional Republicans are as aware of nuclear energy loan guarantees as we are. It doesn’t necessarily follow that where goes solar also goes nuclear.

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If you’re going to open a new nuclear facility, it makes sense to stress safety.

Hsu said Taipower had incorporated improvements to the project, such as an emergency diesel generator facility, after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant crisis in Japan, triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami that crippled the facility on March 11.

This is in Taiwan. Hsu is Taipower vice president Hsu Hwai-chiung. There’s more on safety:

In line with Ma’s instructions, Hsu said, Taipower would adopt the strictest possible safety standards in handling the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant’s testing and supervisory work.

“We will invite international professional organizations, such as the World Association of Nuclear Operators, to assist with oversight and the plant will go online only once optimal safety is guaranteed,” Hsu said.

In addition to Taipower’s internal controls, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) have also closely monitored the construction of the plant to ensure safety standards are met, Minster of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang said.

And Ma is Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou. The World Association of Nuclear Operators, or WANO, is really stepping up to the plate here. These are the recommendations approved by WANO’s board during its general meeting in October:

These included expanding the scope of WANO's activities; developing a world-wide integrated event response strategy; improving WANO's credibility, including important changes to WANO's peer review process; improving visibility; and improving the quality of all WANO products and services.

This sounded as though WANO was interested in adopting the approach taken by the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, the nuclear energy industry-created watchdog, into the international sphere. And indeed, that’s at least partly the case:

WANO said that it will also put into place an internal emergency response procedure that clearly defines roles and responsibilities in the event of a nuclear emergency. It will also take additional initiatives of working with other key industry organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Nuclear Association and the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations.

Issues of national sovereignty can easily keep WANO from becoming as effective as it could be, but if the organization’s members allow it latitude, as Taiwan is doing, and WANO is able to gather enough authority around itself, then its potential expands accordingly. It’ll be interested to see how the experience in Taiwan goes.

Sort of an interesting merger of the WANO logo – which is a wireframe world map – and a map showing its main offices.

FEMA to Conduct Nationwide Test of Emergency Alert System

The Federal Emergency Management Agency needs your help in spreading the message that it will be conducting a first-of-a-kind nationwide test of its Emergency Alert System next Wednesday, November 9, at 2 P.M. EST.
The alert and warning system serves as a tool the President could use, if ever needed, to provide information and communicate to Americans during an emergency.
FEMA’s website provides the skinny on what to expect during the test:

• The test will be approximately 30 seconds long and will look and sound very similar to the frequent local tests of the Emergency Alert System;
• It will be transmitted via television and radio stations within the U.S., including Alaska, Hawaii, the territories of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa;
• An audio message will interrupt television and radio programming indicating: “This is only a test,” though text may not indicate this same message on the screen on every television channel;
• Organizations that serve people with disabilities or people with limited English proficiency should be aware that they may receive requests for information or assistance from broadcasters or other communications service providers and emergency managers in the days leading up to, during, and after the test; and
• When the test is over, regular programming will resume. In the coming days, our agencies will be releasing additional information to help inform the public about this test. Resources, including videos in accessible formats, can be found at www.fema.gov/eastest.

Although the test will involve radio and television stations, it will not be broadcast on some other communication channels.

The test will not involve other communication devices such as the Internet, LAN and mobile telephones. No other communications networks or devices will be impacted by the test, meaning that people will be able to continue use their cell phones, the internet and other communications channels during the test. There will be no disruption of those services.

FEMA, the Federal Communications Commission and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been working in partnership with one another to conduct the nationwide test. Under Executive Order 13407, the federal government is charged with having an emergency alert system in place for use by the President “under all conditions.”
Visit FEMA’s Facebook page or website to learn more.
Image of widget from FEMA’s website.

Friday Update

From NEI’s Japan micro-site:

No Criticality Found at Fukushima Daiichi
Nov. 4, 2011

Plant Status

• The trace of radioactive xenon found earlier this week in reactor 2 at Fukushima Daiichi is too small to have resulted from a criticality incident in the reactor, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has concluded. The company said yesterday that the small amount of xenon-135 detected in a gas sample taken from the reactor 2 containment vessel resulted from the spontaneous fission of curium-242 and -244, which are found in nuclear fuel. Spontaneous fission is a form of radioactive decay that does not lead to a chain reaction. A criticality event would have resulted in higher levels of xenon, TEPCO said. Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency will evaluate the results.

Media Highlights

• The Nov. 3 issue of Roll Call, a newspaper that follows activities in Congress, includes a commentary from NEI President and CEO Marvin Fertel on steps the industry has taken since the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi to enhance safety and preparedness at America’s nuclear energy facilities. Fertel’s op-ed communicates the industry’s commitment to learning from Fukushima and its alignment with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on critical safety issues.
• Reuters reports the Japanese government is giving TEPCO $11.5 billion to help the company avert a funding shortfall as it begins significant payouts in compensation for the nuclear accident. TEPCO forecast a net loss of $7.7 billion for the current fiscal year. The company said it plans to cut costs by $32.7 billion over the next 10 years and to cut 7,400 jobs by March 2014.
• As work continues to stabilize the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, officials in Japan are working on ways to dispose of the tons of radioactive material collected in decontamination activities. Disposal will require new technology, the Associated Press reports. Japan’s environment ministry estimates the cost of collecting and storing the contaminated material will be $14 billion, a Bloomberg report says.

NEO Asteroid 2005 YU55 Close Approach May Bring Increased Meteor Activtiy 8NOV2011

NEO 2005 YU55 Close Approach May Bring Increased Meteor Activty
NEO (Near Earth Object) asteroid 2005 YU55 with a detected diameter of 400 meters is to safely pass the Earth on November 8, 2011.  This body with a close interaction may have accompanying debris that may encounter Earth as meteors or fireballs.  There is also a possibility that the Moon may experience increased meteor activity. Have

The Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News 4NOV2011

Pioneering University of Hawaii meteorite researcher to be honored
The RepublicAP Honolulu — A University of Hawaii scientist known for groundbreaking work on meteorites is due to be honored at a conference on Kauai next week. Klaus Keil is known for pioneering quantitative studies of minerals in meteorites and making important ...


Cloudbait Observatory - 2011 OrionidsThe annual Orionid meteor 

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