Short Takes – 5-30-24

Researchers in Pittsburgh discover large source of lithium in Pennsylvania. CBSNews.com article. Dissolved lithium in waste water from fracking operations. Pull quote: “"This is lithium concentrations that already exist at the surface in some capacity in Pennsylvania, and we found that there was sufficient lithium in the waters to supply somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of the current U.S. national demand," said Justin Mackey, research scientist the National Energy Technology Laboratory and PhD student at Pitt.” See journal article here for details.

Exxon Mobil Entering Lithium Market. ChemicalProcessing.com article. Pull quote: “To help meet demand for electric vehicles and the lithium required to power them, ExxonMobil plans to become a leading supplier of lithium using a modern process that has less environmental impact than traditional mining. Exxon's lithium extraction process is expected to have up to two-thirds less carbon intensity than hard-rock mining.”

Successful engine test boosts Vega-C toward return-to-flight. Phys.org article. Pull quote: “A second firing-test will be conducted after the summer to confirm the data collected today. Avio engineers will review the data from the first test to prepare for a second test in October that will then qualify the second stage Zefiro-40 solid rocket motor for a return-to-flight by the end of 2024 from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.”

Iceland volcano eruption throws spectacular 160-foot-high wall of lava toward Grindavík. LiveScience.com article. Pull quote: “This is the eighth eruption on the peninsula since March 2021 and the fifth since December 2023. The last eruption continued for 54 days, from March 16 to May 8, 2024. That eruption produced lava flows that narrowly missed Grindavík and a giant plume of toxic gas that traveled hundreds of miles across northern Europe.”

OPM reminds agencies of burrowing rules ahead of election season. GovExec.com article. Pull quote: “A GAO audit of political appointee burrowing between 2016 and January 2021—covering the end of the Obama administration and the entirety of the Trump administration—found that OPM denied roughly 20% of burrowing requests. But 23% of conversions—37 in total—were implemented prior to asking OPM’s permission, in contravention of government policy, of which 10 hires were ultimately deemed improper, requiring agencies to take steps to address OPM’s concerns.”

Biden secretly gave Ukraine permission to strike inside Russia with US weapons. Politico.com article. Pull quote: ““The president recently directed his team to ensure that Ukraine is able to use U.S. weapons for counter-fire purposes in Kharkiv so Ukraine can hit back at Russian forces hitting them or preparing to hit them,” one of the U.S. officials said, adding that the policy of not allowing long-range strikes inside Russia “has not changed.””

Bird flu confirmed in third farmworker: CDC. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: ““The respiratory symptoms we’re seeing in this individual are what we expected. This is after all, a respiratory virus that is known to cause respiratory systems, symptoms that are well known and symptoms that we are on the lookout for,” Nirav Shah, CDC’s principal deputy director told reporters Thursday.”

ACC Worried about Lapse in CFATS Protection. PowderBulkSolids.com article. Continued industry support for expired CFATS program. Pull quote: “American Chemistry Council President & CEO Chris Jahn believes that US chemical facilities are vulnerable to attack and that Congress must act to secure them before terrorists strike, due to the lapse in the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards program as of last July. Below, Jahn writes on why CFATS is necessary — and why the US cannot survive without it.”

Rocket ‘Sandblasts’ Could Pose Major Risk on Moon, New Studies Warn. ScientificAmerican.com article. Pull quote: “Although this may seem like a minor technical revision, it has huge implications for how lunar blast radii are calculated. In one of the new studies, Metzger tested his new theory against footage of the Apollo 16 moon landing that was filmed out of one of the lander’s windows. He found that his theory nicely explained how the dust flung out by the lander’s rocket exhaustduring descent blocked the crew’s view of nearby craters. But his calculations also imply that the Apollo 16 lander flung out between 11 and 26 metric tons of lunar soil—an amount at least four times larger than previous estimates, with much of the remaining uncertainty tied to the soil’s poorly constrained properties.”