Faulty transformer - shock to the village

Two persons died, 10 persons got injured and several electrical appliances got damaged when an entire village was under electric shock. The two persons died when they tried to switch on power supply in their homes. The news item appeared in Times of India. The report says this happened due to a faulty transformer and after the identifying the problem, the transformer was replaced and power supply was restored.

I talked to my friends of electrical engineering discipline on this news item. I was told that this can happen, due to lack of earthing, or supply of high voltage directly to domestic users, or when there is contact of phase with the body of the equipment with no neutral. If persons are wet, then they can get shock while switching the plug.

Earlier also there were many news reports of damage of TVs, refrigerators, bursting of picture tubes, etc due to high voltage. 

Nuclear Fission Superior to Other Energy Sources | The Energy Collective

Nuclear Fission Superior to Other Energy Sources | The Energy Collective

LINK

Six months later: The Fukushima nuclear disaster in retrospect - The Mainichi Daily News

A brief note on efforts of the plant to contain radioactive water containment:

Six months later: The Fukushima nuclear disaster in retrospect - The Mainichi Daily News

LINK

Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority Bill in India

Government of India introduced a Bill on Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority (NSRA) Act 2011 (link provided at the end of this article) in the monsoon session of the parliament (Lok Sabha) on Wednesday 7th September 2011. As per the report in livemint,  report in The Hindu, article in Power Engineering, the Bill provides for creation of a

1. Council of Nuclear Safety (CNS) with Prime Minister as Chair Person and other members including Atomic Energy Commission Chairman as ex-officio for nuclear/radiation safety policy review; 
2. an authority (NSRA) with offices at different places having a a chairperson, two whole-time members and up to four part-time members.The chairperson, reporting to parliament, would have to have at least 25 years' experience in nuclear science and technology, environmental science, engineering or related fields. The members would need to have at least 20 years' experience in these fields.; Chair Person and Members can serve for a maximum two terms with each at three years and upto a maximum age of 70 years; Member upto 65 years. The Chair Person is also Chief Executive Officer of NSRA with financial and administrative powers.
3. search committees for selection of Chair Person and Members of NSRA
4. an appellate authority with a Supreme Court judge or a High Court Chief Justice as Chair Person and two scientist who are experts in the field as its Members.

Atomic Energy Regulatory Boad (AERB) will be dissolved after establishment of the authority as per Section 18 of the proposed Act and Chairman & its members will be transferred to function as Chair Person and members of NSRA till search committees find persons for these posts. AERB Employees also will be transferred to NSRA and within three years they can decide to be part of NSRA or as any central government employee.
As per Section 19, the jurisdiction of the Authority shall extend to all areas to which this Act is applicable and activities relating to production, development or use of atomic energy and radiation in all its applications, or transport (within India or outside India), transfer by sale or otherwise, import, export or storage or disposal of nuclear and radioactive material.

The NSRA would decide on issues through a majority vote of the members, and if there is a tie, the chairperson or the senior-most member present shall have a second or casting vote, the bill has proposed. The CNS will be empowered to create the appellate for grievance addressal.

NSRA is the sole authority for administering Factories Act 1948 as per Section 23 of NSRA Act 2011. The authority can delegate its powers to any one including state government as per Section 24, except making regulations. Section 25 gives powers to central government to exempt facilities of national interest.

Section 40 states penalties of upto 5 years imprisonment and or fine for violations. Top to bottom, anybody responsible can be punished (Section 41). Section 44 says, Civil courts do not have jurisdiction on matters which NSRA or other regulatory bodies empowered under this Act.

Creation of this council got necessiated in the aftermath of Fukushima accident, the government's resolve to increase share of nuclear power, allow private operators for nuclear power generation and ensure safety.
After approval of the Bill, the NSRA has to notify any accident of significant risk within 15 days and should give wide publicity as per Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act,2010. It appears that the Bill is aimed at ensuring safety to employees, public and environment mainly during power generation keeping in mind of accidents occurred earlier like Chernobyl and Fukushima. As government intends to allow private operators in nuclear power generation, to avoid bypassing or short cuts on safety procedures, it proposes stringent provisions for safe generation of nuclear power. The penal provisions include jail term upto five years and also fines.

Council of Nuclear Safety:  Consist of the Prime Minister, the Union ministers of environment, external affairs, health, home affairs, science and technology, the cabinet secretary, the chairperson of the atomic energy commission, and eminent experts to be nominated by the central government.





THE NUCLEAR SAFETY REGULATORY AUTHORITY BILL, 2011

Related news items:

http://www.google.co.in/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1R2ADFA_enIN437&q=nuclear+safety+regulatory+authority+bill+2011
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/nuclear-safety-bill-tabled-in-lok-sabha/articleshow/9901420.cms
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/189375/revamped-n-safety-mechanism-cards.html
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ws070911Nuclear.asp
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/economy/article2432732.ece

e-waste generation in India and its magnitude

An article today in livemint is about e-waste generation in the country and its way of collection and recycling mostly through scrap dealers. About 4.0 lac tonnes of e-waste is generated in the country and is growing at 10-15% per year. Struggle for existence makes availability of cheap labour and their exploitation. It may be that children are engaged for collection of scrap including e-waste. As this is unorganised sector, working conditions remain pathetic and out of purview of the regulators thereby endangering the health of the workers and surroundings. Effluents will be discharged into public sewage/drainage and thereby contaminating the ground and water bodies.

e-mail or phone?

Today in the news paper MINT, a syndicated column appeared on people tendency to use e-mail rather than phone for communication, though it is convenient to speak rather than type. Few months back, our boss also commented that, now-a-days, we are using e-mail more than the phone.
At workplace, I feel e-mail is more convenient to convey information to a group though it is easy to speak directly or over phone with limited number of persons. Moreover, e-mail is a written document which can serve as a proof of communication. Nobody can say that he/she did not received the mail. In case, e-mail ID is typed wrongly, then the sender will be at fault, else the receiver has to accept. If the mail ID is non-existent, then failure notice will appear in the sender's inbox. Verbal communication is like writing on the water.
Apart from communication to bulk, e-mail is also helpful to convey tough messages, or to those whom we do not want to talk but we have to communicate.
It is easy to organize the mails sent into different folders and can be retrieved easily with search words, whereas we have to spend more time in filing and tracing. We can also copy e-mails in portable storage media and use wherever required.
However, direct communication helps to convey what we want, remove any misunderstanding and help in improving relations. Urgent issues also have to be communicated directly. Sending e-mail in these cases will not ensure immediate attention of the receiver whether he is available near his computer or not.
At the same time, if we have to talk to nut cases (stupids), we have to use all our energy and time unsuccessfully and go home with disturbed mind.
Finally use of phone or e-mail depends on the importance of the issue, audience, time and our energy levels.

A fire incident

LINK

A fire incident was reported which caused property loss of Rs 2-3 crore as per some reports. Other reports mention the loss at much higher level. The cause stated is short circuit during testing of electrical equipment. Others say it is due to sparks from welding in the area that is full of flammables. The fire spread through cables to nearby area. No  injuries are reported.
Generally, for any fire incident any where, it is common to attribute short circuit as the reason. Most of the time, the actual reason will be different.
If welding sparks are the reason, then before welding, one should check for presence of flammables atleast 15 m in the surrounding area as it is stated by experts in the field that weld sparks can fly about 15 m distance and can cause damage. If removal of flammables is not possible within this distance, then atleast they should be covered with fire resistant covers. If this is also not possible, worst case, ensure such hot works to be done only in the direct presence of Fire Service crew.

Following are some of the links on the same incident.
http://www.andhrawishesh.com/home/25660.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoE15SxbbUI

Find your web site is safe or not to access

Here are some of the web site services that check whether a particular site we want to access is safe or not. This information is available in cnet.com

Unmask Parasites. Do you know the dark side of your site?   LINK
Norton Safe Web
Hosts for your protection
Google safe browsing
http://google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site= followed by the site you want to check, such as google.com or an IP address

Increase in mesothelioma cases shows efforts to rid Australia of asbestos must continue - Australian Council of Trade Unions

Increase in mesothelioma cases shows efforts to rid Australia of asbestos must continue - Australian Council of Trade Unions

LINK

Side effects of automation???

An article in Times of India on 31.08.2011 (Wednesday) on airplane accidents analyzed about how accidents are taking place due to too much dependence on auto piloting and how pilots are loosing their reflexes when they need in most critical situations.
It is our experience that even for simpler calculations, we use calculator or mobile phone instead of doing it mentally. If we want to know about something, we will not search books. Instead, we do google search or yahoo it. Even for meanings we fail to open dictionary. With such lifestyle, how wish to learn. Traditional methods of learning becoming extinct and getting addicted to NET. Less and less memory is being used and we do not play any mind games. The net result is loss of memory. After one or two generations, when creativity and intelligence is lost, I think we come back to square one and start reinventing the wheel.
I am not against automation. Automation should be designed, tested and implemented such that it is fool proof. We should use the technology for our advantage and should not blame it if there are accidents. Accidents occur because we fail to foresee, fail to plan, fail to use it the way it is required. It is easy to blame. But as an individual, as on authority, as on organization, what we are doing.
At home, we admonish our children, spouse, servant for some mistake. But, how many times we ourselves made mistakes. If we do mistakes, we call it experience and if others do it, we are ready to fire.
In the news item, it is mentioned that pilots use automated systems to fly airliners for all but about three minutes of flight i.e during take off and landing; that they have few opportunities to maintain their skills by flying manually as regulators do not allow manual flying.
In the same news item, at the end, it mentions about a fatal airline crash in the US, in 2009 caused after the co-pilot of a regional airliner programmed incorrect information into the plane's computers, causing it to slow to an unsafe speed, thereby triggering a stall warning. The panicked pilot bypassed two safety systems to control the plane unsuccessfully. In this case, even if the copilot fed wrong information, it appears, there are no program logic or supervision to verify about the wrong entry.
To address the complaint of pilots loosing reflexes of manual control due to automation, I feel that, after every fixed number of hours of flying, all pilots should be subjected to simulator training and examination for different types of scenarios and only those who passed with 100% should be put on roster.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Addicted-to-automation-pilots-forgetting-how-to-fly/articleshow/9804378.cms