Emergency drill to be held Wednesday at Watts Bar
Emergency responders from federal, state and local agencies will join Tennessee Valley Authority personnel in an emergency preparedness graded exercise involving the Watts Bar nuclear plant Wednesday.
The annual drill comes following the restart of Watts Bar’s newest reactor last week following a refueling outage during which TVA employees and contractors completed more than 10,000 planned work activities.
“The team’s hard work during the preparation and execution of this outage – even over the Thanksgiving holiday – has set up Unit 2 for another 18 months of reliably serving the Tennessee Valley,” said Paul Simmons, site vice president.
In addition to replacing one-third of the unit’s fuel assemblies, team members conducted equipment maintenance and upgrades while performing detailed inspections of the unit’s reactor systems and steam generators.
Wednesday’s exercise is part of an ongoing series of training drills and exercises required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ensure nuclear utilities and local emergency response teams are prepared for a coordinated response to any nuclear plant accidents.
Erlanger adds valet parking to adult ER
Erlanger hospital on Monday added complimentary valet parking from noon to midnight for those arriving by private vehicle and needing medical services at Erlanger’s adult emergency room.
“By providing free valet services at the entrance to our adult ER, it enables drivers to accompany their sick or injured passengers into Erlanger’s ER lobby without having to drop them off and find a place to park,” said Mickey Milita, director of guest services and parking at Erlanger.
Erlanger’s director of concierge services Ryan Fugate said easily identifiable “ambassadors” are now stationed onsite in Erlanger’s ER lobby to assist patients and families with registration, condition updates and other special needs. A new closed- circuit television system will provide key information for families and patients in the ER waiting area, and cellphone charger stations are being installed in four of Erlanger’s emergency room lobbies.
Bitcoin futures soar in U.S. exchange debut
Bitcoin’s debut on a major U.S. exchange is a hit so far, with the price of the first-ever futures contract for the virtual currency rising 16 percent.
The futures contract that expires in January was up $2,440 to $17,900 Monday afternoon on the Chicago Board Options Exchange. Trading began Sunday, and the price rose as high as $18,850, according to data from the CBOE.
The CBOE futures don’t involve actual bitcoin. They allow investors to make bets on the future direction of bitcoin.
The first session of futures trading fit right in with the frenzy surrounding bitcoin. Traffic to the CBOE website was so heavy right after the start of trading that the site experienced outages. The exchange also halted trading twice Sunday to stem volatility. The exchange operator has rules in place to stop trading after price swings of 10 percent.
Another large futures exchange, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, will start trading its own futures on Dec. 18 but will use a composite of several bitcoin prices across a handful of exchanges.
Apple buys Shazam music identifying service
Apple has bought Shazam, the maker of a song-recognition app that Apple’s digital assistant Siri has already been using to help people identify the music playing on their iPhones.
The companies didn’t disclose the price of the acquisition announced Monday. Technology news site Recode previously reported Apple is paying about $400 million for Shazam, citing three unidentified people familiar with the deal.
Apple Inc. issued a statement describing Shazam as “natural fit” with its services.
“We have exciting plans in store, and we look forward to combining with Shazam,” Apple said. The Cupertino, Calif., company declined to say whether Shazam’s app will still be available after the deal closes.
Some of Shazam’s features conceivably could be blended into Apple’s music streaming services, which has accumulated more than 27 million subscribers since the company created it in 2015.
Siri began drawing upon Shazam’s technology to answer questions about songs as part of a 2014 update to the iPhone’s operating system.
The Shazam deal marks Apple’s biggest acquisition in music since paying $3 billion for Beats Electronics’ line of headphones and music service in 2014.