Local Phone Savings and Free Long Distance In Texas - Prices Starting at Only $22.95 Per Month!
February 14, 2008
This is from the front page of today's Austin American-Statesman, of Texas.
See full text of this story via the web version of this article.
January 30, 2008
This is from the front page of today's Amarillo Globe-News, of Texas.
January 22, 2008
[Source: top story on front page of today's The Beaumont Enterprise (Beaumont, Texas)
July 20, 2006
Longview TX - 500 mCi cesium-137 source melted at steel mill
LeTourneau, Inc. reports that on or about July 20, an approximately 18.5 GBq (500 mCi) Cs-137 source melted into the air pollution control system at its electric arc furnace steel mill located near Longview, Texas. The event was discovered after a truck containing furnace dust alarmed a radiation monitor at gate of waste site in Tennessee. The most highly contaminated places in the plant were in the ash hopper and silo. The contamination passed through the same baghouse-style air pollution control system as the furnace's normal effluent. The company has identified approximately 250 tons of material contaminated by the event, and has requested approval by NRC of their plan to ship the material as radwaste to disposal site in Idaho. [Refs: The initial event report by Texas Dept of Health to NRC is available with other event reports for July 31, 2006 at NRC. More info about the event, but mostly about the waste handling plans, is available in LeTourneau, Inc. report released by NRC via ADAMS system on December 6, 2006 as ACN ML063260540.]
February 1, 2006
* Texas - radiographer's 2005Q4 badge showed overexposure (5.581 Rem)
October 21, 2004
* Texas - leaky tritium source (214 mCi electron capture detector, UT at Austin)
August 16, 2004
April 30, 2004
* Terror Target: Texas coastal oil refineries
March 29, 2004
* Tritium beam splitter thought missing from National Guard tank last week, was there all the time
March 24, 2004
* Texas - tritium beam splitter missing from National Guard tank (10 Ci)
January 4, 2003
Texas wind power - 23% of US wind-electric output
Texas has existing wind-power structures that account for 23 percent of the nation's total wind power capacity, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The nation's total wind power could provide electricity to 1.5 million average American homes, said Tom Gray, deputy executive director of the American Wind Energy Association.
[Source: Matthew Sturdevant (Corpus Christi Caller-Times), "Texans can choose solution, not pollution; Lifestyle options can save resources, cut emissions", Corpus Christi Caller-Times (Texas), January 4, 2004, p. C1]
December 22, 2003
* Texas - P-32 source wire discovered leaking upon return from hospital (Guidant Corp)
December 10, 2003
* Texas A&M - leaking source in Chem lab scintillation counter
December 5, 2003
* Texas - Well logging sources (7.3 Ci) abandoned after becoming stuck in Valverde County oil well
October 14, 2003
Montana oil rig workers exposed to unshielded well-logging source; Texas firm firmed $90,000
NRC announced a proposed civil penalty of $90,000 against Schlumberger Technology Corporation of Sugar Land, Texas. The fine is related to a May 21, 2002 incident involving the loss of control of a well-logging source containing approximately 1.3 curies of Cesium-137 on an oil rig near Havre, Montana. Thirty-one oilfield workers were identified as being exposed to the source, including thirteen who received doses estimated to be in excess of NRC's 0.1 rem annual limit for individual members of the public. The highest estimated exposure was 0.4 rem, which is less than 10 percent of the annual allowable dose for radiation workers. In a letter to company announcing the proposed fine, NRC regional administrator Bruce Mallett said "While none of the oilfield workers received a radiation exposure that is considered harmful, ... the NRC takes seriously any incident that results in members of the public being unnecessarily exposed to radioactive material."
The company's well-logging crew apparently left the rig without performing required radiation survey intended to verify that the source had been fully retracted into its shield. Two of the workers signed paperwork indicating that required surveys had been performed. NRC considered prohibiting these two from further licensed activities, but decided to issue individual notices of violation to them, too. One was an engineer-in-training. He told NRC that he was told by another worker that he didn't have to perform a survey, and then he felt pressured to sign off on the form. The other was the lowest-paid member of the crew, and told NRC he signed under the assumption that the engineers had performed survey.
[Ref: Notices of Violation related to NRC Inspection Report No. 030-06388/02-001]
July 21, 2003
* Texas - Haliburton - 4 of 1200 lab sources missing (from Sperry-Sun acquisition)
July 14, 2003
May 20, 2003
Texas generating capacity appears up to the challenge of record demand
"Texas remains well supplied for summer, with an estimated 70,000 MW of generating capacity available to meet a projected record demand. The North American Electric Reliability Council ... said the Texas grid will experience an all-time peak demand of 57,664 megawatts this summer, exceeding the previous record of 57,606 MW set during an extended heat wave in 2000. Last year, demand peaked at 56,233 MW. The projected capacity margin for 2003 is 26.6%, well above regional requirements of 11%. About 3,600 MW of new generation will also be added to the grid before and during the summer, but the net increase in capacity will only rise by about 1,960 MW (taking into account generation that has been taken out of service in the past year.)" [Source: Reuters, Texas power grid prepared for long, hot summer, May 20, 2003]
May 14, 2003
Natural gas price rise to boost electricity bills this summer - 33% rise in San Antonio is also partly due to STP-1 shutdown
San Antonio residents can expect to see a bigger-than-expected jump in their utility bills.
Higher natural gas prices and less power from the South Texas Project nuclear plant mean the average electric bill in San Antonio, Texas could go up 33 percent this summer compared to last year, City Public Service officials said yesterday.
Steve Bartley, CPS director of regulatory relations, said the higher monthly bills are the result of two things: customers are expected to use more electricity this year to run their air conditioners (it was pretty rainy last summer), and power is projected to be more costly to produce, mainly because of higher natural gas prices.
Although natural gas prices have dropped from a high of $20 per thousand cubic feet in February, Bartley said the utility is projecting it will pay an average market price of $5.75 this summer. That's 60 percent higher than the $3.50 paid last summer.
Throughout the year, CPS generates about 15 percent of its electricity with natural gas, 46 percent with coal and 27 percent with nuclear power. Another 12 percent comes from purchased power and wind-generated. However, more natural gas is used in the summer to help CPS fire up backup generators to meet peak demands.
Another factor, Bartley said, is that CPS will be getting only about half the electricity the utility normally does out of its 28 percent ownership of the nuclear power plant in Bay City. Last April, a routine inspection revealed signs of a leak from the Unit 1 reactor's coolant system. The reactor was shut down; it's unknown when it will return to service.
Bartley said other factors also affect the price of natural gas, including a shortage of gas in storage, economic reverberations from Gulf War II and the oil industry strike in Venezuela.
[Source: Tom Bower, "Summer electric bills may shock you", San Antonio Express-News, May 14, 2003]