Canadian Expert Compares North American Power Grid to “String of Christmas Lights that’s been Running Since the 1950s”/Temp
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Saturday, August 11, 2007
"Just like they told us that our bridges were safe, they also want us to swallow that our power grid is in no danger of a system-wide, no-power-for-weeks crash", said tenured grid expert Donald McCormick, a senior contractor with Hydro One based in Ontario, Canada.
Mr. McCormick indicated that in reality though, there’s no question that the system of grids that supply power throughout the continent are in much worse shape than the majority of bridges, levees and borders in Canada and U.S. He has over two decades of experience in all aspects of power grid construction, infrastructure, maintenance, and distribution. During a recent interview Mr. McCormick compared the ten major interconnected power regions that comprise the “North American Grid” to a string of Christmas lights that’s been active non-stop since the 1950s. Mr. McCormick's qualifications include being a licensed red seal interprovincial/interstate electrical engineer and he's worked at numerous power generating stations mainly in Canada, but also across the U.S. He's participated in building regional infrastructure related to both generation and distribution. Additionally, Mr. McCormick iss Orange Level qualified as an Atomic Radiation Worker (ARW) registered in Geneva, Switzerland.
During the interview, Mr. McCormick offered his candid assessment of today’s continental “power grid” and made several startling observations about this critical, civilization-supporting industry. His power plant experience includes both nuclear and coal, and he’s a certified expert in alternative fuel technologies such as wind, solar and hydrogen. He said that, from nuclear to coal, the majority of power generating plants operating across North America have momentous deficiencies, and the collective 10-region “power grid” has not been maintained properly (across the board) since the 1960s. It's well known that population growth has created a state of affairs in which North American power consumption is far greater than what’s being yielded by our current technological capacity to generate consumable energy. Mr. McCormick indicated that the infamous August 2003 blackout, in which the Northeastern U.S., Mid-Eastern U.S. and most of Ontario suffered stifling, life-interrupting blackouts, was just the beginning of something much more significant. In reference to the North American Power Grid Initiative, he said that it’s nothing more than a case of, “too little, too late”.
Mr. McCormick further stated with regard to the state of today’s power generating plants, “You’re frequently seeing substandard parts and equipment being employed, on sites across the continent, and being used for sensitive construction projects, often related to components integral to the grid system itself. North American nuclear energy generating plants are among the worst when it comes to safety violations, not only endangering on-site employees with blatant disregard but also literally thousands of people with regard to unregulated, unnoticed pollution and waste being dumped in rivers, lakes and oceans, into the atmosphere and, more specifically, our entire ecosystem”.
Mr. McCormick strongly feels that another major breakdown of the grid system may occur by the end of this year, and he further stated that he’s also concerned that, due to a number of known deficiencies in the network, the domestic power grid system is also in grave danger of being undermined by terrorists.
Sources
- Joe Burd "Expert Says Domestic Power Grid Verging On Collapse, Vunerable to Attack". Disinformation Today (c) 2007 Joe Burd, August 11, 2007
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