- Hello, Jeff - I was surprised to see Promed ADMIT that
the Plum Island power failure could lead to release of emerging infectious
disease pathogens.
-
- It is obvious that our "secure?" labs and hospitals
will need reliable backup. Maybe now, they can do something.
-
- At this point in time, all that terrorists need do is
take out power in the areas of secure labs. Our inept backup which means
no back up power at all, will do the rest. They would not have to bring
in pathogens, as we have them here waiting to escape when the power goes
out.
-
- Patricia
-
- BTW, I do not see the mainstream following up on the
Plum Island situation. Where are they. Is Jeff Rense the only media outlet
publicizing the dangerous situation at the Plum? Guess so.
-
-
-
- POWER LOSS, PLUM ISLAND - USA (NY)
-
- A ProMED-mail post ProMED-mail, a program of the International
Society for Infectious Diseases http://www.isid.org
-
- From: Paul R. Epstein, M.D. paul_epstein@hms.harvard.edu
1-2-02
-
- The 3-hour loss of power and the failure of all 3 backup
generators at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in mid-December [2002]
do raise fears that the containment of infectious pathogens could have
been seriously compromised, and renew concerns about the safety of high-security
labs in general. The threat of emerging infectious diseases (unintentional
and intentional) raises the importance of reliable back-up power for biomedical
institutions.
-
- Even optimally maintained back-up diesel generators may
fail to cover sustained power outages [such as] occurred at Columbia Presbyterian
Medical Center in NYC in the summer of 1999. During the 3-week July heatwave
there a blackout occurred in upper Manhattan, and back-up generators successively
failed, one after another. Columbia lost biomedical research (tissue cultures,
etc.) in 2 buildings. (The story was covered on the front page of the NY
Times.) In another incident in a Rhode Island hospital, a patient's death
has been attributed to a failure of power and back-up generators. (The
case is still in litigation.)
-
- Such failures are encouraging several medical schools
to install fuel cells for back-up and even primary power generation. In
the private sector the Bank of Omaha has already installed a large unit
to ensure the continuity of transactions that take place somewhere across
the globe, day or night. Fuel cells burn hydrogen (still from natural gas,
thus some carbon must be sequestered, as yet) and produce usable hot water
(the "cogeneration" boosting efficiency 2-fold at least).
-
- Fuel cells provide on-site power, i.e., non-centralized,
distributed generation. They are built-in systems that involve redundant
pathways and are thus considered 99.99999% reliable.
-
- Fuel cells are still expensive. But there are numerous
reasons to consider them, that include:
-
- 1. The vulnerability of diesel back-up systems; 2. The
expanding work related to EIDs (emerging infectious diseases of humans,
wildlife, and plants); 3. The potential for increased blackouts due to
more extreme weather events; 4. The need for clean, non-polluting power
sources; and 5. The vulnerability of the electricity grid itself to interruption
and attack.
-
- Biomedical institutions and those planning for bioterrorism
should strongly consider budgeting for and seeking federal financial incentives
to install fuel cells as integral to ensuring our safety, security, and
health.
-
- -- Paul R. Epstein, M.D., M.P.H. Associate Director Center
for Health and the Global Environment Harvard Medical School <paul_epstein@hms.harvard.edu>
-
- [Disclaimer: ProMED has no financial interest in fuel
cells. - Mod.JW]
-
- [see also: 2002 ----- Power loss, Plum Island - USA (NY)
20021221.6105] ...............................jw/pg/jw
-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD Please visit my "Emerging
Diseases" message board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/emergingdiseases/index.shtml
Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health
-
-
-
- Comment
-
- From Paul Karpf
- pkarpf@hps.cc
- 1-4-3
-
- Greetings, Jeff...
-
- Please accept my comments regarding Plum Island
and back-up power. I am the Rental Manager at a Caterpillar Power
Systems Dealer in California and I'd like to comment on the proposal to
install fuel cells for more reliable back-up power. This premise is flawed
because of the following. "Prime Power", standby diesel
generators are far more reliable and far more practical than a Hydrogen
Fuel Cell. I don't disagree that Fuel Cells will be better for
the environment. I'm only referring to on-site back-up power.
-
- 75% of back-up generators that fail to start due
so because of improper battery maintenance. Most of the units
that fail after start-up due so because of bad fuel or because the electrical
system is old and not tested to full load as prescribed. Hospitals and
all critical facilities should start their units every week
and run them under full load at least once every 2 years either by
preplanning and simulating an actual outage or by using an outside
testing company. Fuel tanks must be purged or the fuel "polished"
every year. If not, your back-up units will have their fuel filters clogged
until all units have shut down. Also, 2 types of diesel generators
are sold; "Back-up" and "Prime Power" units.
A "Back-up" unit is only designed to provide the specified minimum
of power at the lowest possible cost to the customer. These units are
just not designed to run for weeks on-end after years of aging. Caterpillar builds
Prime Power diesel generators from 100 kilowatts (a kilowatt/kW is 1000
watts) to 2000kW, that, when maintained as we maintain our rental
fleet will almost never fail.
-
- A critical facility that needs 3 back-up generators
should always Spec 4 units. That way you can always take one offline for
service or to cover a unit should a problem occur. Most generators
will require a complete service after 500 hours of operation. Hospitals
in California, by law, must rent Back-up generators when they
relay on their on-site generators as their primary source of power, thus
they maintain 100% redundancy. In the event of a disaster the County Sheriff
already has a plan for us roll immediately to get the local hospitals covered
with 100% redundancy. A disaster could easily fill the
Emergency and Surgery rooms with critical patients. Another system
that should be tested annually is the switch that automatically tells the
generators to start and transfers the power to them. This is called
an Auto Transfer Switch (ATS). If it fails you won't have power even
if the gensets operate properly.
-
-
- The Facility Managers for our local hospitals take their
generators very seriously. They monitor their battery chargers, water
heaters (required for block loading) and fuel systems on a weekly basis.
If they don't, the same thing that happened on Plum Island might occur
resulting in criminal negligence. Another fine example of proper maintenance
is the how many refineries shut-down annually and test every electrical
circuit to it's maximum. They do this because a fire or shut-down would
result in a huge loss of income.
-
- Some other reasons a fuel cell cannot yet take the place
of a back-up diesel generator:
-
- We can place a complete 2000KW generator with an
underground fuel tank in a 10' x 40' footprint. To my knowledge, a fuel
cell of this size would be experimental and require a building of
at least 150'x150'. Large hospitals can require anywhere from 4,000 to
10,000kW.
-
- A back-up generator at a hospital must start and take
the full electrical load within 10 seconds. This is called "Block
Loading". Sometimes its an almost violent process that fuel cells are
not even close to being capable of handling; at least for now.
-
- 10,000 gallons of diesel (A truck load) will keep a 2000kW
generator running for about 80 hours. How much Hydrogen would it take
to equal 10,000 gallons of diesel?
-
- Diesel is readily available, easy to handle,
and safe to store. Hydrogen is the complete opposite.
-
- A large storage tank of pressurized gas is an easy target
to take down.
-
- A Fuel cell and all it's components would not survive
an earthquake.
-
- Maintenance on a Fuel Cell would be far more complex than
on a Diesel engine.
-
- Fuel Cells have far more things to break on them than
a big Diesel engine that was designed to have a run life of 20,000 hours.
- So in summary, the generator failures on Plum Island
and Columbia Presbyterian were probably caused by a lack of maintenance
and testing.
-
- Sincerely,
-
- Paul K.
- Rental Manager
- San Diego, CA
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