Nuclear power woes are AECL's fault

The news has finally surfaced: AECL's poor practices caused the medical isotope "crisis" and other problems.

In the view of most nuclear experts and informed observers, these AECL failures are the real cause of last month's crisis in isotope production that culminated this week in the Harper government's unprecedented firing of Linda Keen, president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission....

... top AECL management was repeatedly hauled on the carpet before the Nuclear Safety Commission and its predecessor, the Atomic Energy Control Board, to explain poor operating practices at the Universal reactor, including foot-dragging on implementing safety upgrades ordered by the federal regulator

...new reactors aren't operating because of a series of hard-to-believe blunders by once world-class Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the Crown corporation responsible for designing and building them.

I credit Ontario Geofish with pointing out these basic facts months ago.

How important is staff training?

You know that's a trick question, right? The answer is consistent: training of staff in the workplace is vital.


A year ago today, the inflatable roof at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver collapsed under the weight of slush and meltwater. A report concludes that BC Place Stadium collapse could have been avoided if staff were properly trained.

existing damage to the roof fabric, human error and weather caused the tear in the roof panel. [The report] also found staff did not properly monitor the "cascading effect of water slush," and did not realize what was happening until it was too late. Even then, the report found, the operators were not trained in dealing with ponded water on the roof and did not know how to deal with it.

What caused the I35-W bridge disaster?

Well, it was neglect of needed repairs, of course. But why did the highway department and the state neglect them? Barking Nonsequitur has a plausible chain of events to the bridge disaster. the 2002 report that said rumors of the bridge's deterioration were exaggerated. One of the commenters points out that follow-up reports to that report, issued in 2005 and 2006, used the exact same photographs, so more cracks, if present, would not be noted. In 2007, the bridge collapsed catastrophically, dropping traffic into the river and killing several people.

Scientific LOLcats

It's time for another cheezeburger.

Canadian government falls for AECL's manipulation

...and orders the Chalk River reactor to start up against the advice of nuclear experts who say it's not safe.

As someone commented on CBC radio tonight, there was no media hoopla when AECL had a labour conflict and the reactor was shut down. Canada can buy its isotopes from other producers; they have agreements already in place in case this kind of thing happens, which it does, occasionally. The U.S., a much bigger consumer of Chalk River's isotopes, is not panicking. This is purely the AECL wanting to get back to selling the stuff itself - after lying about putting in the emergency backup system.

You can read about it in several successive articles on Ontario geofish: "Earthquakes and medical isotopes," for instance.

Gov't rushes to override safety rules for nuclear reactor

Prime Minister Harper, who apparently has a direct line to God, has assured Parliament that there will be no nuclear accident.

Citing an urgent need for medical isotopes, and ignoring the fact that the AECL lied when saying that emergency power for cooling pumps had been installed, the political parties of Canada will remove the reactor from regulatory oversight and force it back into production.

"There will be no nuclear accidents," said Prime Minister Stephen Harper, responding to heckles from Opposition members.

The replacement plant is six years behind schedule. Didn't anybody notice before last month?


The NRC's National Research Universal (NRU) reactor in Chalk River, Ont. is the world's biggest producer of medical isotopes. (Photo: National Research Council of Canada)

AECL vs. Canadian Society of Nuclear Medicine

Harold Asmis at Ontario Geofish points out that Atomic Energy Canada Limited has been operating a reactor without a licence... and now we're going to be short of radioactive isotopes for treating cancer patients.

Original Shroedinger's LOLcat

Check here for the story of the first Shroedinger's indeterminate kitty.

More plagiarism by Kent Hovind's "ministry"

While we're talking about plagiarism, I noticed this in a video created by Kent Hovind's "ministry." He announced at the beginning of the video that it was not copyrighted and we were welcome to use his videos and spread them around - his "ministry" had made more than a million videos. There was one little hitch. I'm pretty sure that I recognize this image as the work of an America comic artist, who sells it as one of a series of pricey greeting cards. The style is distinctive. So I suspect that this image isn't Hovind's to give away. And I'll bet he didn't ask permission before using it - because permission wouldn't have included the right to release it into the public domain for unlimited copying. The image was innocently picked up in the critical analysis, "Why do people laugh at creationists? (part 6)".

And the mask is definitely off. What objective science lectures are promulgated by a ministry? I thought that ministries left the science to scientists and concentrated on religious or social rhetoric.

Update: The artist whose work I suspect this is is Mike Scovel. It certainly looks like his style (caution! music, lyrics, fart button!), especially for women. Perhaps I should write, "More apparent plagiarism" because I haven't heard back from the artist yet.

Why do people laugh at Creationists? 4

Here we go again: Creationist Kent Hovind opens his mouth to change feet:

Why do people laugh at creationists? 2

You'd think that staying awake in high school general science class would cure this.

"Water is only found on Earth." I think the narrator is pushing towards, "We're special and that proves that God loves us; therefore he must exist." In fact...

Composition of the universe: 92 percent hydrogen less than 8 percent helium more than 1 percent oxygen

...water is the commonest molecule in the universe after hydrogen gas.

Why do people laugh at creationists? 1

Why do people laugh at creationists? See for yourself.


Such ignorance can be attained only by determined striving.

Ball lightning in the lab

National Geographic reported on 22 January 2007 that

"Brazilian scientists may have solved a shocking scientific mystery by creating ball lightning in the lab. Physicist Antonio Pav��o and doctoral student Gerson Paiva of the Federal University of Pernambuco have created orbs of electricity about the size of golf balls that mimic natural ball lightning. The fluffy-looking spheres spin, throw off sparks, and vibrate. They also move erratically about the lab, rolling around on the floor, bouncing off objects, and burning whatever they touch (see enlarged photo for stills from laboratory video). People have reported seeing ball lightning in nature for hundreds of years, but there is no scientific consensus as to what causes the phenomenon. ..."

LOLhovind or "Why do people laugh at creationists? 3"

See Greg Laden's post, "Why do people laugh at creationists?" Greg has a video (WDPLAC? 3) showing biblical literalist Kent Hovind explaining how the mammoths got frozen, with follow-up comments by a physicist.

If you want to skip directly to the video, it's here:

Tunguska crater found? Probably not

The Bad Astronomy Blogger has some commentary on the reported finding of what might be the crater of the Tunguska meteorite. For one thing, the crater is oval, which generally indicates an old and distorted crater. For another, coincidence of "crater-like shape" is not enough.

Record heat halts Chicago Marathon

In today's Chicago Marathon, 45,000 runners were registered. Hot, muggy weather was predicted. Ten thousand runners chose not to start. The race organizers did what they could. Compared to last year, they provided 10 more buses to take "drop-outs" back to the finish line and 15 more "cooling buses" for those who needed treatment, as well as 10,000 more servings of water or sports drinks. There were 700 medical volunteers, including 100 doctors.

Almost 36,000 runners started out in the hottest temperatures in thirty years: 88��F (31��C). Heat and humidity are a vicious combination. There were 10,934 DNFs (Did Not Finish). One man collapsed and died at the 18th mile of the 26-mile course. Even more surprising, almost one percent of the runners were taken to hospital or treated in the medical tents. The race started at 8:00 a.m. and the fastest runners finished, but anyone who didn't reach the half-way point by about noon was told to get off the course and start walking back to the finishing area. Then those who had passed the half-way point were told that the race was over and they should simply stop and go straight to the recovery tents or post-race snacks.

The Army Ten-Miler in Washington, D.C., today had 26,000 runners registered. Officials thought they were ready for 70��F temperatures and high humidity with extra fluids and aid stations. Yet another runner died in that race.

It is very unusual for a runner to die like that. It made the news once when a runner had a heart attack during a race - I forget now whether it was Chicago or New York. But I calculated that in an ordinary population of that size, four people would have heart attacks during the same hours.

This article on heat exhaustion and heatstroke, "Evaluation and Treatment of Heat-related Illnesses," by Randall K. Wexler, mentions runners:

marathon runners have developed temperature elevations up to 41��C (105.8��F) while running in 25��C (77��F) weather.

The article says that heat illnesses "occur insidiously but progress rapidly."

I watched the 1999 Philadelphia Marathon, which was run in November with 100% humidity. Some say the temperatures were in the 60s, others that they were in the low to mid 70s. It felt like at least 80��F (26��C). I was too hot just standing on the sidelines. The runners were much worse off. By the half-way point runners were struggling and many were vomiting. But it didn't reach the dangerous levels of today's race, as you can see by the heat index chart below.


You can read more about today's Chicago Marathon in The Chicagoist: Triumph and Tragedy at Chicago Marathon. And you can find more news and pictures at Chicago Tribune Sports.

One of the news articles commented that runners prefer weather of 40 - 50��F (5 - 10��C) because they generate so much heat when running. My favourite weather for running is at least that cold, preferably with some wet snow.

A star with a tail in the tail of the Whale

A star in the constellation Cetus is trailing a tail 13 light-years long. The tail, hot gasses thrown off the red giant, is made up of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. Scientists believe that the gasses will form the nuclei of new solar systems. These elements are, with hydrogen, the ones that make up organic molecules atoms such as amino acids and sugars.

Our own solar system is made of atoms that have passed through another star at least once. The original atoms were almost all hydrogen and helium; anything heavier came from the fusion of a star's dying aeons.

LOLcats: physics

This is my favourite LOLkitten:

Kinetic sculptures

Take a look at this wonderful video of kinetic sculptures.

They are not the ones illustrated, which are merely pleasant mobiles.

Perpetual motion

Perpetual motion is in the news lately: the Irish company Steorn is promising to demonstrate a perpetual motion machine. (Here's a history of perpetual motion claims.) The poster demonstrates one of my favourite perpetual motion schemes, the Buttered Toast vs. Falling Cat Levitator. (It's from LolCat Buildr.)