AECL sale to SNC-Lavalin near

Ottawa is close to a sale of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. to SNC-Lavalin Group of Montreal, ending a federal withdrawal from the nuclear energy business that has been in the works since 2009. The anticipated sale would include the Candu reactor business but not the Chalk River, Ont., nuclear reactor unit that makes medical isotopes and does research. An announcement could come as early as this week, although final details are still being worked out. Peter White, the head of the Society of Professional Engineers and Associates union that represents AECL workers, said he has not received word of any deal, but did say that management have...

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'Magical' as Lennox collects OBE

Musician Annie Lennox has described being awarded with the OBE by the Queen as "magical". The former Eurythmics singer was honoured for her work fighting Aids and poverty in Africa in an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace.Lennox, 56, said: "It's quite magical. It's really meaningful to me that it's for charity work."Campaigning has been taking up a great deal of my commitment for quite a few years, and what it means is that there's a significance to what I'm doing - I'm not just working in a void. To get this acknowledgement means people are listening."She met the...

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PacifiCorp's reliance on coal plants brings utility to expensive juncture

View full sizeTim Kupsick / Casper Star-TribunePacifiCorp's largest-capacity coal plant, the Jim Bridger Plant near Rock Springs, Wyo.When it comes to power plant pollution, the spotlight in Oregon has been fixed on Portland General Electric and its plan to shut the Boardman coal plant by 2020 rather than invest $500 million to keep it running under stricter air-quality mandates. But when it comes to coal, PacifiCorp is king. That dependence is driving Oregon's second largest utility to a very different strategy when it comes to impending regulations: to stay the course with coal, despite the...

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* Business * Economic growth (GDP) Poor GDP figures add to pressure on Osborne

Construction industry income fell 3.4% during the first three months of 2011. Photograph: Roger Bamber/Alamy The Office for National Statistics has maintained that a dramatic fall in construction activity restricted UK economic growth to 0.5% in the first quarter of the year.Construction industry income fell 3.4% during the first three months, a slight upward revision on initial estimates, offsetting a 0.9% rise in services, the ONS said.It confirms that the economy has remained flat for almost nine months after a drop in GDP of 0.5% in the final quarter of 2010 and zero growth in the...

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False profits no more, as corporate revenue set to surge

Sales for large caps will double this year, analysts say; 'things are getting better' Revenue will climb 10 percent in 2011, twice last year's rate, as personal income and corporate spending recover, according to data from analysts compiled by Bloomberg. Net margin estimates were unchanged the past two months after rising more than 50 percent since 2009. The measure of income divided by revenue increased to 13.4 percent in the first quarter from 8.2 percent in October 2009, Bloomberg data show.Companies that boosted profits by firing workers and closing factories in the first two years of the expansion...

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Rare display for Auckland Art Gallery re-opening

Supplied RESTORED: The newly refurbished areas of the historic Auckland Art Gallery were returned to the care of its staff today after three years with Hawkins Construction. #TB_window { display: block; } Relevant offers When the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki re-opens in 68 days, the new-look building will exhibit a rare collection of modern art gifted to the people of Auckland. The newly refurbished areas of the historic gallery were returned to the care of its staff today after three years with Hawkins Construction.  And when...

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U.S. aims to increase rare earths extraction

e The drills pull up cylinders of rock in search of exotic minerals like neodymium, praseodymium and ytterbium. Those “rare earths” are critical ingredients of your car’s catalytic converter and your computer’s flat-screen display, of smartphones and smart bombs. They make your Prius purr and lasers shine. In an age of the digital and the virtual, they are the “hard” in hardware. In 2010, the world mined 133,000 metric tons of rare earths. Of that, all but 3,000 tons came from China. In the United States there is but one mine — in Mountain Pass,...

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Learn construction skills while helping others

Summer is the perfect time to work on your house - or somebody else's house. Volunteer construction and remodeling is a great way to help needy people while learning valuable construction skills. My wife and I spent several months outside New Orleans helping rebuild homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Every home in St. Bernard Parish, where we worked, was inundated with several feet of polluted floodwater after the levees broke. After the water eventually subsided, every building needed to be stripped to the studs, and many were rebuilt with volunteer labor. I learned the whole interior...

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Shrinkage Compensating Concrete

There are significant developments in concrete technology for a number of different and unique applications. Shrinkage compensating concrete is a concrete made with an expansive cement which, when properly restrained by reinforcement or other means, will expand by an amount equal to or slightly greater than the anticipated drying shrinkage. Ideally a residual compression will remain in the concrete reducing the risk of shrinkage cracking. In the USA and Russia, expansive cements are produced as an enity, whereas in Japan they are produced by adding expansive admixtures to ordinary porland cement (OPC). A number of types of expansive...

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Construction Loan Insurance

You’ve decided to build your own dream home. You’ve picked out a plot of land, found a house design that you like, and have secured your bank loans. Did you know that you also need three types of insurance in order to get started? Never fear, your bank requires two of those types before the building process begins! The three types of insurance you will need are: • Course of Construction • General Liability • Workers’ Compensation The first two types of insurance are required by the bank, while the third type, workers’ compensation, is required only if the builder has employees. Let’s go over the first two types of insurance in a little...

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Time Managing Tips for Construction Project Managers

Good time management is very important to a successful project manager. The best project managers ensure they are productive for most of their time and avoid time-wasters at all costs. Here are some tips for project managers that can help you manage your time more effectively. Create the Plan What does this have to do with time management I hear you ask? Well, if everyone knows what they are doing and have a plan with regular milestones to focus on, you as project manager will spend a lot less time dealing with issues brought about through a lack of clarity. Remember the 80/20 Rule The 80/20 rule (or the Pareto Principle) is the idea...

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Free Construction Software

When searching for construction software to help run your business cost should not be your ultimate concern because the old adage is true – you really do get what you pay for. Just as you wouldn’t hire a high school kid to do your accounting because you could get him cheap, you also shouldn’t pick a software package based solely on price. After all, this is your business you’re dealing with. That said, there are many affordable (and even free) construction software packages out there. A business software application that is totally free, however, may raise a few red flags. How good can it be if they are giving it away? Can I get by ...

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Waterproofing Coating to Concrete Water Tank

Basically, internal surface coating in potable water tank shall be smooth, easy-to-clean and has high mechanical resistance to accommodate the erosion of movement of water. Most important thing is that this coating shall not adversely influence the quality of water. Sika has been supplying SikaTop Seal 107 or Icosit TW 450 to large numbers of water projects. This product has been tested in local and international laboratory and meets the requirement for waterproofing and protective coating in contact with potable water. In waste water treatment, besides providing waterproofing properties, internal surface coating shall be able to...

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