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Four University of Scranton students participated in an emergency management drill in Luzerne County for the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station. The students are all members of W3USR: The University of Scranton Amateur Radio Club, pursuing majors offered through the Department of Physics and Engineering and the Computing Sciences Department.

“The students were participating in the drill as members Luzerne County Amateur Radio Emergency Services at the City of Nanticoke Emergency Operations Center (EOC). … An important part of the EOC is communications between the Municipal and County EOC,” said Dave Skoniecki, an emergency preparedness coordinator for Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, explaining that each municipal EOC provides a back-up means of communication in case the primary communication channel becomes unavailable. “The Luzerne County Amateur Radio Emergency Services plays an important role in these drills and exercises and we greatly appreciate the participation of The University of Scranton students in the community.”

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) consists of trained radio amateurs who provide public service communications support. Trained amateur radio operators serve communities when storms or other disasters damage critical communication infrastructure, including cell towers, and wired and wireless networks. Amateur radio can function completely independently of the internet and phone systems. An amateur radio station can be set up almost anywhere in minutes.

University students who participated were: James P. (JP) Fox, Hillsborough, New Jersey, a computer science major in his senior year at Scranton; Gerard N. Piccini, Monroe Township, New Jersey, an electrical engineering major in his junior year; Thomas J. Pisano, Staten Island, New York, an electrical engineering major in his junior year; and Stephen Salamon, Wayne, New Jersey, a mechanical engineering major in his freshman year at Scranton.

Nathaniel Frissell, Ph.D., assistant professor physics and electrical engineering, serves as moderator for W3USR: The University of Scranton Amateur Radio Club.

Undergraduate programs…

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SEAFORD — TidalHealth Wound & Hyperbaric providers, leaders and clinicians at TidalHealth Nanticoke were honored with the 2022 Center of Distinction Award, which was recently presented to the Seaford hospital team by Healogics, the nation’s largest provider of advanced wound care services.

The Center achieved outstanding clinical outcomes for 12 consecutive months, including patient satisfaction higher than 92%, and a minimum comprehensive healing rate of 75%, all within 28 median days to heal.

There were more than 600 Centers eligible for the Center of Distinction award and 306 achieved the honor.

“TidalHealth is pleased to offer exceptional wound care services to the community we serve. It is an honor to accept this national Center of Distinction Award on behalf of the dedicated wound care professionals in Seaford at TidalHealth Wound & Hyperbaric,” said Cindy Lunsford, executive vice president and COO, TidalHealth.

TidalHealth Wound & Hyperbaric, with care centers at TidalHealth Peninsula Regional in Salisbury, Maryland and TidalHealth Nanticoke, is a member of the Healogics network of over 600 Wound Care Centers and offers highly specialized wound care to patients suffering from diabetic foot ulcers, pressure ulcers, infections and other chronic wounds that have not healed in a reasonable amount of time.

Advanced wound care modalities provided by our wound care experts include negative pressure wound therapy, total contact casting, bio-engineered tissues, biosynthetic dressings and growth factor therapies. TidalHealth Wound & Hyperbaric also offers hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which works by surrounding the patient with 100% oxygen to help progress the healing of the wound.

Though only in its second full year of operation, the TidalHealth Wound & Hyperbaric Nanticoke team achieved this Center of Distinction recognition, which is tied directly to their outstanding care, safety, and customer service.

“Every day they work with difficult to heal wounds of the highest acuity,…

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After a year of planning and two years of carefully staged remediation and demolition, which included three separate implosions, Ontario’s last coal-fired generating plant is gone.

Mississauga, Ont.-based York1 is in the very final stages of the site cleanup of the former 326-MW three-boiler Ontario Power Generating Station in Thunder Bay.

Located on Mission Island on the shores of Lake Superior, it was the last of four plants that were closed and demolished as part of Ontario’s phase-out of coal-fired electricity generation. The others were Lakeview, Nanticoke and Lambton.

Unlike those other demolitions, which was overseen by OPG, this project was entirely managed by York1, says the company’s director of business development, Christina Murray.

After purchasing the site, York1 began initial planning in April 2020 and then began developing more detailed plans when its crews moved onsite exactly a year later, in April 2021.

In September, the first step in the demolition was completed with the blasting of the plant’s 198-metre-high concrete stack by Rakowski Energetics and Engineering. In the lead-up to that implosion, an extensive planning process was conducted with the input and participation of three separate engineering firms.

They included Englobe, the project engineer of record, blast engineer DSI, and ASI which conducted computer simulated tests to determine how the stack would react to the blast and wouldn’t prematurely fail, says Murray.

Some of the precautions included ensuring the stack would fall to the left and not to the right, which could have impacted an Ontario Hydro live switch substation. Any openings on the west side of the stack’s base had to be filled in with concrete and an opening had to be sawcut on the east side to allow it to collapse in that direction. 

Favourable wind movements also had to be factored in, she says.

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