Saturday, February 26, 2011

Monster Prominence

Great day to pop out 7 miles!



For all you runners...

The Huntsville Track Club's page for the 2011 Cotton Row Run is up. Online registration begins March 1! Plus, don't forget the beginning of May and the Run Through The Roses 10K (and 5K this year) in Madison. Registration has been ongoing for Run Through The Roses...

Monday, February 21, 2011

NGC 2841

Spiral Galaxy NGC 2841
Source: Hubblesite.org

For an idea of the amount of work that goes into making a spectacular color image like the one above, here's a video from Hubble's YouTube channel:

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Former NRC chairman suggests reprocessing spent nuclear fuel might be a good idea....

At the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting.


Speaking of the NRC, here are the Browns Ferry documents placed in ADAMS for the past week. Two of the items (concerning control rod blade cracking) have been covered in the news recently. They are ML110460487 and ML110480054. I can't say much beyond what these documents say because I'm not an official spokesman, but I will say that TVA and Browns Ferry have specific plans/contingencies and maintain appropriate communication with the applicable vendor. That said, here are last week's docs:

  1. ML110380129 - Browns Ferry, Unit 2, Response to Request for Additional Information Regarding American Society of Mechanical Engineers Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section XI, Inservice Inspection Program for the 4th Ten-Year Inspection Interval.
  2. ML110410388 - LER 10-005-00 for Browns Ferry, Unit 1, Regarding Main Steam Relief Valves As-Found Setpoints Exceeded Technical Specification Lift Pressure Values.
  3. ML110460487 - Notification of Potential Part 21 Reportable Condition re Design Life of D and S Lattice Marathon Control Blades.
  4. ML110460455 - Browns Ferry, Unit 2 - Notification of Inspection and Request for Information.
  5. ML110480054 - Notification of Potential Part 21 Reportable Condition: Crack Indications in Marathon Control Rod Blades.
  6. ML110480551 - Browns Ferry, Unit 3, Acceptance Review Results for Relief Request 3-ISI-25.