• Infrastructure / U.S. gas pipeline networkGrowing concerns about U.S. aging gas pipeline network

    A disturbing realization has emerged from the wreckage of a deadly pipeline explosion in California: There are thousands of pipes just like it across the United States; experts say that pipes of some age were put in the ground before the dense population arrived and now the dense population is right over the pipes; thousands of pipelines across the United States fit the bill, and serious incidents are not infrequent; federal officials have recorded 2,840 significant gas pipeline accidents since 1990, more than a third causing deaths and significant injuries

  • Gas pipeline info kept secret for security reasons, hampering disaster response

    The United States has a 2.5-million-mile network of gas transmission lines; citing fears that terrorists might try to blow up the U.S. natural gas pipelines, federal regulators and the industry have made it extremely difficult for homeowners to learn the location of pipelines and any history of inspections and repairs — information that safety advocates say could save lives

  • San Bruno gas pipe failure started with bad welds or corrosion

    The failure of a natural-gas pipeline that ruptured three weeks ago, devastating a San Bruno neighborhood, may have started along a weld or in a weakened section of the 54-year-old pipe; “This pipe basically unpeeled and failed catastrophically,” said Tom Bowman, chairman of the thermosciences division in Stanford University’s mechanical engineering department

  • Smart gridSmart Grid Information Clearinghouse Web Portal launched

    Virginia Tech has released the latest version of the Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse (SGIC) Web portal; the portal is the platform for direct sharing and dissemination of relevant smart grid information, ranging from background documents, deployment experiences, technologies, and standards, to on-going smart grid projects around the world