The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing the challenge by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League that two AP1000 nuclear reactors from Westinghouse Eletric Co. are subject to corrosion. Read more here.

Like a great deal of the overall United States’ infrastructure, pipelines as far back as the early 20th Century are still in service.

According to federal data, 56% of oil pipelines and 60% of gas transmission lines were laid before 1970.

The Enbridge Energy Partners pipeline that burst near Marshall in July is 41 years old, and its line crossing the Straits of Mackinac was laid in 1954. Some pipelines in the state are older.

Yet oil and gas companies say that age is not the key to whether pipes are safe — it’s maintenance.

Read more here.

Following suit, India is looking to perform a pan-industry corrosion audit much like the corrosion audit performed in the United States in 2001 by CC Technologies. (see the study here) Read more about the potential legislation here.

The National Corrosion Center has lost one of our beloved board members and friend, Matt Simmons.  He passed away on Sunday night at his home in Maine.  Matt had become one of our staunchest supporters and saw the NCC as a critical component and partner in the Ocean Energy Institute, which he started three years ago.  He would often tease me about if I wasn’t at Rice I would call corrosion for what it really is- “RUST”.   He was a giant in the energy industry and I will very much miss my great friend and mentor. 

Our sympathies go out to his family and colleagues and in lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the Ocean Energy Institute (http://www.oceanenergy.org).

Read Josh Garrett’s article.

Emil Peña

source: NewsOK

Tulsa-based North American Galvanizing & Coatings Inc. has agreed to be acquired through a cash tender offer for $7.50 per share in cash or about $126 million. That news, issued before markets opened Thursday, sent North American Galvanizing shares to $7.49, a 34.7 percent gain. More than 4 million shares traded, about 80 times the average daily volume. North American Galvanizing shares were the second-biggest daily gainer on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

Under the agreement, North American Galvanizing would be merged with a subsidiary of Fort Worth-based AZZ Inc., a major competitor in the galvanizing industry. The tender offer from AZZ is scheduled to commence April 30. The companies expect the transaction can close by the end of August.

Read more here.

Scientists at The National Corrosion Center  have unveiled a one-of-a-kind microscope  that lets them zoom in for the closest look anyone has ever gotten of corrosion in action.

	TOMMY LAVERGNE
	Dr. Rolf Arvidson, left, and Dr. Andreas Lüttge demonstrate the new ZeMapper interferometer.

“There is no other instrument like this in the world,” said NCC director Andreas Lüttge at the Oct. 14 Rice University open house for the center’s new interferometry laboratory. “With this interferometer we can measure corrosion quantitatively before most techniques can even see it,” said Lüttge, professor of Earth science and of chemistry.

Dr. Ken Nealson, Wrigley Chair in Environmental Studies and Professor of Earth Sciences and Biological Sciences, spoke to the National Corrosion Center Advisory Board on September 18, 2009. Dr. Nealson reviewed his pioneering work with geobiology, Shewanella oneidensis, and the tie in to corrosion (via electromicrobiology).

From the USC faculty profile:

Professor Nealson is one of the pioneers of the field of modern geobiology – an area of science that tackles the still largely unexplored domain where the processes and chemistry of life intersect with the planet’s mineral and metal chemistry. In his early work as a marine microbiologist, Nealson discovered quorum sensing, the phenomenon in which microbial communities create light. As one of the first to recognize the importance of microorganisms in catalyzing redox reactions in the environment, he has led the development of tools to study these organisms. Nealson’s techniques, used to study microbial populations through genetic identification, are now considered standard in analyzing microbes found in biofilms. On a much larger scale, Nealson has studied the cycling of such minerals as iron and manganese, revealing the key role of microorganisms in these biogeochemical processes. More recently, he has turned to the understanding of how life can function in extreme environments, and he is directing efforts at NASA to search for life and evidence of ancient life in the solar system. Recent work has involved the systems biology and comparative genomics of a group of organisms in the genus Shewanella, as well as adapting his laboratory work to the application of using microbes to produce energy from waste materials in microbial fuel cells.

Dr. Nealson’s awards include:

• Endowed Chair, Wrigley Chair in Environmental Studies, 9/1/2001-
• Proctor and Gamble Medal in Environmental Microbiology, 5/2003
• Distinguished Visiting Researcher Award presented by Joint
• Oceanographic Institution, 1996
• Fellow (or Equivalent) of National Society in Discipline, American Academy of Microbiology, 1994
• Guggenheim Fellowship Recipient, 1982