Recently in Sean Adkins Category

An independent nuclear experts has recommended that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approve Three Mile Island's  bid to run for an additional 20 years.

Since no one has contested TMI's application for license renewal, the NRC will not hold a hearing and instead expects to issue a decision by early November.

The sole concern that the independent board had with the application had to do with a corroding metal liner that prevents vapor from leaving the containment building.

TMI has since replaced the barrier and launched a program to monitor the rate of corrosion.

Click on this link to read the independent board's report:

TMIACRSLetter.9-2009.pdf 

 

 Three Mile Island Unit 1 has two more hurdles to jump before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves the plant to operate for an additional 20 years.

 York Daily Record/Sunday News staffer Sean Adkins reports that on Thursday, the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, an independent body of experts that advises the NRC  nuclear-safety matters, will meet to discuss any outstanding issues related to safety at the plant such as leakage concerning the plant's containment building.

  This weekend, the committee will draft a report based on its observations and recommendations on TMI's bid for license renewal.

  Next, the NRC's director of the office of nuclear reactor regulation will review the committee's report as well as the commission's safety and environmental evaluations completed earlier this year on TMI. (For the safety evaluation, scroll to "Reading Room." For the environmental report, scroll to "Supplement 37.")

 The NRC expects to issue its decision whether to re-license the reactor in November.

So, I'm reading USA Today Friday morning and I run into an article about bird strikes.

Birds colliding with aircraft have been big news since a US Airways Jet in January was forced to ditch in the Hudson River after a bird took out two of its engines.   

The article claims that, for the first time, the Federal Aviation Administration has released data on bird strikes. 

Yet, in May 2003, the York Daily Record published an article, reported by me, about bird strikes that had plagued both HIA and Capital City Airport between 1990 and 2002.

I didn't use the term "first time" in my article. Now, I'm thinking that, maybe, I should have included those two words into my story.   

 Updated York-area numbers:

Between Jan. 1, 2003,
and Dec. 31, 2008, Harrisburg International Airport in
Dauphin County notified the
Federal Aviation Administration that airplanes that took off
from and landed on its run
ways struck 146 animals, according to the FAA's Bird
Strike Database.
  
 During that same time
period, Baltimore Washington
International Airport reported
453 strikes while Capital City
Airport in Fairview Township
reported 10 wildlife collisions.