Group items tagged

"Several prominent professors at U.S. colleges have participated in China's talent acquisition program, according to leaked documents from a Chinese regional authority. The professors worked with the Thousand Talents Program (TTP), a controversial state-backed recruitment plan criticized by U.S. officials for its role in transferring Western research and technology to China."

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-disasters-caused-corrosion-samuel-cowlishaw/ Surfside condominium collapses- June 2021: The main contributing factor under investigation is long-term degradation of reinforced concrete structural support in the ground-level parking garage under the housing units. Genoa, Italy Bridge Collapse- August 2018: The bridge was only 51 years old and the steel cables supporting the bridge failed likely due to damage from corrosion. Fall of Railway Traffic Lights- November 2014: A train traveling through England struck the railway traffic lights near an intersection. The post holding the lights fell due to corrosion and then struck by an oncoming train. Sinking of the Erika - December 1999: The Maltese taker broke into two while traveling near the coast of Britany France. Nearly 20,000 tons of oil were spilled. Multiple parts of the ship that had failed were compromised by corrosion. Bhopal, India Incident-December 1984: Corrosion caused toxic gas from a pesticide plant to leak into the atmosphere. More than 500,000 were exposed to the gas and official numbers says the tragedy caused 2,259 fatal victims. Unofficial sources say the number can be close to 8,000 fatal victms. Balcony Collapse at University of Virginia- May 1997: A balcony collapsed during the spring commencement ceremony. Rust had eaten way at the metal rods inside the balcony, which failed under the wight of the attendees. An engineering firm hired by the university said the collapse likely was caused by the failure of one of the four hangar rods that suspended the balcony.

DRIVER-MATERIALS-INFRASTRUCTURE Municipal pipe market spending makes up 30 percent of overall utility CAPEX for water infrastructure. In part, to address aging pipes, bursts, and other leakage management issues, the pipe market is turning to new materials (plastic) and new technologies (trenchless). More than $234 billion (USD) of capital expenditures (CAPEX) are forecasted over the next decade to address aging municipal water and wastewater pipe network infrastructure, according to Bluefield's forecasts. Precipitated by decades of underinvestment, municipal utilities are under increasing pressure to address deteriorating linear assets at a faster pace. Water losses through leaks for U.S. utilities average 15 percent annually, with some cities, towns, and communities losing more than half of all water pumped and treated for distribution to customers. As a result, rehabilitation of existing pipes is the fastest growing spend category, increasing annually from $253 million in 2019 to $576 million by 2028. Network expansions, particularly in high population growth across the sunbelt states (e.g. Texas and Arizona), will drive the lion's share of spending on new build.

usted iron pipes can react with residual disinfectants in drinking water distribution systems to produce carcinogenic hexavalent chromium in drinking water, reports a study by engineers at UC Riverside. Chromium is a metal that occurs naturally in the soil and groundwater.