Arlo Siemsen, Science & Engineering - The Solar Vehicle Program - 2013 World Solar Challenge, Australia

Arlo Siemsen - Electronics expert for U of M Solar Car

Arlo Siemsen gave a  talk on the University of Minnesota Solar Vehicle Project. The solar car is designed and built by U of M undergraduates at an approximate cost of $250,000.  With many funds donated by local companies.

On October 15, 2013 the vehicle completed the 3,000 kilometer 2013 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia.  It placed 4th in the Cruiser class.  Less than 50% of all teams completed the race under their own power.

Fun fact:  U of MN DEHS employee David Paulu is a former member of a past U of M Solar Car team.

Video on the 2013 two seat Solar car Daedalus

Dr. Sherrie Flaherty, MDH - MN Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program

Dr. Sherrie Flaherty

Minnesota has two nuclear powered reactors located at Monticello and Prairie Island.  The Prairie Island reactor is a pressurized water reactor and the Monticello reactor is a boiling water reactor.   The reactors each have triple containment to reduce the possibility of radioactive release to the environment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressurized_water_reactor

  

Prairie Island Power Plant - http://www.mprnews.org/story/2013/03/27/environment/prairie-island-nuclear-plant-getting-additional-inspections

Boiling Water Reactor:  http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/students/animated-bwr.html

Monticello Power Plant - http://www.mprnews.org/story/2007/01/17/monticelloshut

Resources:

2011 Emergency Preparedness guide for the Monticello Power plant - Xcel Energy
2013 Emergency Preparedness guide for the Prairie Island Power plant - Xcel Energy

Acronyms:

• REP - Radiation Emergency Preparedness
• EAL - Emergency Action Level
• ECL - Emergency Classification Level
• EPZ - Emergency Planning Zones - 10 mile radius from plant
• GE   - General Emergency
• IPZ  - Ingestion Planning Zone - 50 mile radius from plant
• NUE - Notice of Unusual Event
• PAR - Protective Action Relocation
• KI -    Potassium Iodide
• SAE - Site Area Emergency

Three types of fission byproducts are produced with different half lives

Cesium 134 half life of 2 years
Cesium 137 half life approx. 30 years.
Iodine 131  half life 8 days.

After a confirmed release of radioactive material, individuals within 10 miles of a reactor or are down wind of a nuclear release need to pick up potassium iodide at Target Pharmacy.

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New Turbine at Prairie Island Plant 2013

DEHS fall retreat - Connie Weston - Emergency Preparedness for the Medical Lab

Connie Weston talking with Brian Vetter

Connie Weston provided an informative talk on Metro Area Emergency Preparedness for the Medical Lab.

First a handy guide to acronyms:

• ACS - Alternate Care Sites
• C-FLOP - Command, Finance, Logistics, Operations, Planning - IC command structure
• BHPP - Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program
• CERT - Civilian Emergency Response Team
• MHMPC - Metro Health Medical Preparadness Coalition
• MN Responds - Minnesota Medical Reserve Corps 
• MNTrac - Minnesota system for Tracking Resources, Alerts and Communication
• MMT - Mobile Medical Team
• MMU - Mobile Medical Unit
• RHRC - Regional Hospital Resource Center
• TOT - Technical Operations Team

Lessons learned from setting up a 1,200 bed ACS site in 2011 at River Center:

• Arm badges don't work well.  They are not visible.  They slide down the arms.  Vests or lanyards work better.
• When setting up a cot secure the latch back or someone may fall out of it.
• Triage areas can be a bottleneck and must be designed to get people processed promptly.
• Communication can be difficult- The battery strength on two way radios will decay over time.  The use time on the battery dropped to less than 1/2 hour.  They resorted to megaphones and then yelling when the batteries on the megaphones died. 
• Need personnel who are focused on problem solving and not focused on the sky is falling.  
• Before moving supplies in a mobile lab unit make sure items are latched and secured properly. 
• Developing a good system for keeping track of people when they are sent off site for treatment is critical. 
• Need security for pharmacy.

Resources:

They have buses available to transport patients either in a seated position or a horizontal position.

There is a mobile 8 bead emergency room available on 48 hour notice.  It must be placed in a parking lot or other flat surface area as it needs to be stable.  The semi is driven 150 miles a month and maintained by a local technical school. 

Minnesota is a leader in taking care of companion animals.  

The central Minnesota response team has had recent experience responding to large flood events and was a valuable resource for responders in other parts of the state.

DEHS fall retreat December 5, 2013 - Fracking with Dr. Larry Wackett

Dr. Larry Wackett Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics spoke on the Fractured Debate on Fracking.

Shale Plays in the lower 48 United States   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shale_gas_in_the_United_States

US oil production bottomed out in 2008 but has now increased due to a process known as fracking. The deep (2-4 mile) horizontal wells allow extraction of crude oil and natural gas in areas previously unavailable for removal.  Currently, there are approximately 80,000 fracking wells in the US.  The map above shows the available shale plays with deposits of oil and natural gas.  Fracking operations will also be increasing around the world.

http://legalectric.org/f/2013/10/fracSandOperations.jpg

While fracking does not occur in Minnesota, the state along with Wisconsin does provide very high quality sand used in the fracking process.  The uniform spheres are the best proppant available to allow for gas and oil to be removed from the horizontal fractures in the well.

The water use in a fracking well is heavy.  One fracking well will use the amount of water  needed to fill ten Olympic sized swimming pools.  The water is injected then removed from the well and placed in settling ponds.  Most fracking operations attempt to recycle the water using chemical treatment and filtration.

Dr. Wackett's group has been experimenting with bacteria that breakdown a broad spectrum of chemicals commonly found as contaminants in fracking water.  Instead of just adding the bacteria to the solution, the bacteria are encased in permeable silica mesh or silica filters.  The bacteria mobility is restricted and they do not reproduce but instead digest the chemicals.  In 20 minutes a bacteria can digest a chemical mass equivalent weight of the bacteria.  He is looking to develop at least four types of bacteria to breakdown several classes of chemicals including benzene, alkanes, alcohols and polycyclic aromatic compounds.

At present, a similar process has been commercially used to breakdown Atrazine for water treatment in Iowa.  The researchers have been attempting to interest companies in field studies to take the experiment out of the laboratory.  His lab maintains the Biocatalysis/Biodegredation Database to assist others interested in biodegredation.

Parker Abbot's Summary of a previous lecture by Dr. Wackett on Fracking

Dr. Wacket's lab has also developed an enzyme test for detecting melamine

MDH and SPH moving beyond HSEEP (Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program)

The Minnsesota Department of Health and the U of MN School of Public Health have developed training exercises to enhance team effectiveness during public health disasters.

The exercise scenarios:

 Political Event; 3-part exercise
 Tornado (affects healthcare system); 2-part exercise
 Winter Storm
 Flash Floods
 Tornado (affects summer tourist area); 2-part exercise
 Firestorm: a climate change scenario

Click on Disaster 101 training information.

Snowfall in Minnesota - April 24, 2013

Sustainability Resources at the University of Minnesota

Sustainable Trail Marker - B.D. Schaap  U of MN Graduate

Sustainable Faculty Network website: It covers connections, networks and communications related to Sustainability.

Ensia:  is a magazine and event series showcasing environmental solutions in action.  It is affiliated with the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment.

Energy management's It All Adds Up website highlights ways to reduce energy consumption on campus.

The U of MN has a Silver rating by the aashe (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education)  STARS (Sustainability Tracking and Rating System ) program.

Green Chemistry at the U of MN.- 2 minutes

Free Lab Safety Videos online from Dow Chemical

Dow chemical has a series of lab safety videos available online.   Prior to viewing the videos you are required to submit your name and email address.

Dow Chemical  Lab Saftey Partnership with U of MN, Penn State and UCSB

Global Harmonization and Safety Data Sheet information

Sitehawk.com has produced several videos providing an introduction to OSHA Global Harmonization System.  How to prepare a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) and why Global Harmonization is important.

Brief introduction to OSHA and GHS - SiteHawk - 3 min.

Tips for Authoring Safety Data Sheets - SiteHawk - 37 min.

GHS Readiness Webinar - 50 minutes from SiteHawk

Capital Planning and Project management have published their latest design standards document.  Material in this document is subject to revision and applies only to the University of Minnesota.

Construction on the West Bank of  the University of Minnesota West Bank campus on June 24, 2010

Renovation Project

 

Water response remediation.

Natural gas Hazard Alert - Serrated hose nozzle leak

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

SAFETY ALERT

Dangers of: Leaky Gas Valves – Fire Risk

Incident

During the week of April 7th, 2013, a gas leak ignited causing damage to pipe covering in a laboratory in the Gortner building on the University of Minnesota St Paul Campus.

A lit Bunsen Burner ignited gas which was leaking from a loose serrated hose nozzle. Flames shot out a foot or more and caused burn damage to nearby pipe covering. The attendant was able to shut off the gas supply before the fire could take hold and spread.

Fortunately, this incident caused minimal damage and there were no injuries.

How did this happen? 

The serrated hose nozzle (pictured - top right) had loosened allowed gas to escape. The university has many older laboratory spaces where this type of nozzle is used.

What is being done to address this risk?

Facilities Management technicians have conducted a sweep of the Gortner building and have tightened a few additional nozzles.

Action for Researchers and Laboratory workers?

Check the gas nozzles in your laboratories to ensure they have a tight fit. You can also squeeze some liquid soap over the threads before activating the gas valve, and look for bubbles.

If you find a loose nozzle, DO NOT USE IT. Contact Facilities Management at 624-2900 and request an “urgent repair”.

If you have questions regarding this alert please contact Joe Klancher, DEHS, at 626-3611.

Unknown precipitate identified with FTIR

In late December, 2012 a Kolthoff Hall lab noticed a problem with white precipitate on bottles stored under a fume hood just after a new unopened bottle was added.  The bottle was removed and the precipitate was cleaned.  The bottle was placed back under the hood and the precipitate reappeared.

Chemicals stored under the hood.

White precipitate on bottles in the hood.

The pH testing of the solid was not helpful.  Tests for peroxides were not conclusive.

An MCE 5um filter was attached to a 15 liter per minute pump and used to vacuum the precipitate from the bottles onto the filter.  This did not work very well.  The edges of the plastic filter were then used to gently mechanically scrape the precipitate off the bottle while the pump was running. 

A 3mm diameter portion of the precipitate was analyzed on the Smith FTIR.  A very clean IR peak was produced but it did not match the chemicals in the library data base.  DEHS sent the .SIR and the .spc files to Reach Back ID service at Smith's Detection system.

The spectrum submitted, WAS consistent with DIISOPROPYLAMINE HYDROCHLORIDE, as shown in the attached JPEG (ReachBackID_20130110 UMN_1.JPG).  DIISOPROPYLAMINE HYDROCHLORIDE is used as  as a reagent in organic synthesis.

After cleaning and decontaminating and isolating each bottle a cap was found to be loose on diisopropylamine.  As the bottle had not been used, this may have been a problem with capping at the manufacturer.