Scottish Tunnel Does the Niagara

Article

The £150million Glendoe scheme ground to a halt just two months after it opened following rock falls within its massive water tunnel.

Thanks to Hypocentre who pointed this out to me. We've already had our rockfall in the Niagara Tunnel, even before it's built! I wonder if it was the same contractor? Can't be too many of those around the world....

......
Oh, pooey, it's some other Austrian-sounding company - Hochtief. It was 20,000 tons of rock, and they used an unlined TBM tunnel.


Maybe they're Austrian cousins?

Investigations of the exact quality and condition of the rock at the location of the rock failure and the exact causes of this embarrassing, costly and serious situation for a brand new hydroelectric power station project continue.

NZ Power Station Really Does Have a Problem

This is scandal is really perking me up! From unknown sources, we have this map of recent epicentres around that canal I wrote about.

Under intense pressure from the utility, the little newspaper buggers have completely zapped the article, but I hope somebody can find it. Basically, this canal area has been riddled by earthquakes, with many new fault traces showing up all over the place. Suddenly, without word to any of the local workers, they decide to drain the canals. Que passa? These poor guys are caught trying to save the fish with their bare hands! A decent human being would have pre-netted before draining.

Ah, local geologist, who is very nice, deserves a high paying job, yada yada, is suddenly badly misquoted, and soundbited to death by the local media. Her point was that these things don't suddenly happen, and there must be a reason. Most likely, the canal has been split by earthquake faulting.

"Ah no! She is crazy!" cries the mouthpiece of the utility. "We don't even know what earthquakes are, so how can it be an earthquake?" Poor lady is mucked by having a mud wrestle with porcine people.

So, although they are attempting to squash all this, the internet is harsh. As a geotechnical engineer with many years of experience with these stupid canals and water tunnels, my scenario is this: They suddenly found themselves with less water at the gate than expected. The canal is on porous volcanic shit, and uses a fairly thin clay lining, under some sort of erosion rip-rap. It is very easy to rupture, and when it does, a lot of water leaks out, which is instantly shown at the gate. You drain the canal, but it is very nasty to find this sort of thing. I would suggest an electromagnetic survey, to try to find soggy bits.

Now, of course I could be all wrong, but when utilities play this game, I rise to the challenge, and make up the nastiest explanations.... :)

Nuclear Dumpster

Article

Fragmented federal-provincial energy policy jurisdictions and political gamesmanship result in domestic market inertia effectively thwarting any prospects for a Canadian nuclear revival;

No comment.

Cluster-phobia

Article

But, Scharnberger added, the fact remains that there’s a lot that isn’t known about this series of small earthquakes, of which 817 have been reported to date, several of a magnitude about 2.9 but most registering at less than 1 on the Richter scale.

No comment.

Sloppy Seismic Shenanigans

Article

SAN FRANCISCO — The Bay Bridge fix that halted traffic across the span for more than five days was not inspected by federal authorities, The Examiner learned, despite public promises from the state agency that oversees the structure.

No comment, I'm going down again.

NZ Utility More Opaque Than Ours

Article

Geologist Donna Falconer claims Meridian's explanation doesn't stack up and believes they are looking for damage in the canals.

"You only have to drive along the canals and see all the heavy earthmoving gear ... They are looking for leaks down in the zone where all this seismic activity has been."

I'll have to go with Crazy Donna* here! What are they doing with this? Most likely they have a significant increase in water leakage, as measured at the gate. So, you've got to drain it and look, in the middle of night, when nobody sees you! Ha, Ha!

*term of endearment.

Earthquakes Slow Down Nuclear Plants

Article

The NRC has asked Westinghouse to revise the design of the AP1000's shield building, which is the outermost structure of the reactor. Regulators said it was unclear whether the shield building, as designed, would be able to withstand earthquakes, tornados or other disasters.

Yeah! Earthquakes are back to totally muck up the plans of mice and men!