Grooming the next generation of corrosion engineers

It's not easy explaining corrosion engineering to my friends and family. So imagine my dilemma when we were invited to speak at Abington School District's Career Day in Montgomery County.

I thought, "How am I going to explain the intricacies of our business to fifth graders with short attention spans?" Since kids love tall stories and outer space, I started with our work on NASA's VAB roof, one of the largest buildings in the world.

We made the grade and won them over using pictures instead of engineering jargon. In fact, we reached these kids more easily than some adults!

And while they probably won't be thinking about anodes during their next science class, the opportunity to impress young minds was certainly rewarding. Someone has to carry on the CP tradition, and it might very well be one of these grade-schoolers.

Here I am with marketing director Jennifer Cantono, fielding questions from fifth graders.

Blanketing Asia with CP technologies

I just completed my third trip to Asia in the past three years, and I am slowly gaining some appreciation for its CP market -- at least the markets in which we do business.

What I found is a complex environment with some established local businesses that are often teamed up with American or European corrosion companies for material supply and technological expertise.

It seems that there are competent corrosion engineers throughout the continent, with some countries having more than others. Invariably, it's a rather small fraternity of specialists. And yet the experience base is much smaller in their country than in the United States.

With our highly developed and highly regulated infrastructure system, American-based corrosion engineers are exposed to a lot more projects covering a lot more industries and applications than their typical counterparts in Asia.

When I discuss cathodic protection overseas, I find American technology, products, and know-how are well respected. Asia corrosion engineers are also excited to hear about our capabilities and experiences.

Despite the experience American CP engineers bring to Asia, doing business there still requires good local representation. Korea is one country that does have good local representation.

These Korean corrosion engineering companies work both domestically and internationally, often through one of the large Korean engineering and corrosion companies.

And India is making strides in this area. For example, Corrtech Ltd., an Indian CP firm that has been in business for almost 30 years, has earned a strong CP reputation. Corrtech and MATCOR recently entered a partnership to capitalize on India's booming economy and tremendous infrastructure needs.

There will be disappointments and lost projects along the way, but perseverance and persistence will allow us to grow in the Indian market.

Is nuclear disaster imminent?

Chernobyl. The city is synonymous with nuclear catastrophe. The human and environmental toll exacted by this Soviet facility left an indelible mark on the Soviet Union’s engineering credibility, and played a role in the demise of its communist government.

The explosion at the Ukrainian facility is recognized as the worst nuclear plant accident ever. Yet, as those in the corrosion world know, even well-designed facilities are subject to the unrelenting march of time. This is true for protecting nuclear plants and dumping grounds.

Just last weekend, news broke that salt water had corroded three enormous storage tanks at a nuclear waste dump in the Russian Arctic, off the coast of Norway. The tanks held spent nuclear fuel rods.

These problems aren’t always a world away. The United States derives 20 percent of its electricy from some 100 nuclear facilities -- all in their third decade of operation, all nearing the end of their 40-year design life.

Some already received 20 year extensions to their operating permits by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Most of the rest are expected to apply for and receive extensions.

While the U.S. nuclear industry takes pride in its outstanding leak-free operation record, these aging facilities are increasingly at risk for corrosion.

Once example is Ohio's Besse-Davis facility. It was shut down in 2002, when a routine inspection uncovered a football-sized corroded area on the reactor head, the result of a leaking boric acid line.

These incidents should sound alarms. My proposed solution: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should work with the NRC to require all nuclear plants, storage facilities, and other such structures to develop aggressive integrity management programs, mirrored after the Department of Transportation’s pipeline integrity program. Frequent risk-based inspections are the only way to assure public safety.