Video shows why suits and sledgehammers don’t mix.

Last month, the National Nuclear Security Administration helped unveil a new $60 million Heating Systems Modernization (HSM) project at Sandia National Laboratories and the start of demolition of an 1,672 square metre (18,000-square-foot) steam plant that has been part of the skyline at Sandia for more than 60 years.

The demolition of the obsolete facility marks the completion of the NNSA’s $60 million Heating System Modernization program, which is part of the NNSA’s Facilities and Infrastructure Recapitalization Program (FIRP). FIRP is aimed at reducing a large maintenance backlog, improving the state of site utilities, and eliminating excess facilities across the nation’s nuclear weapons enterprise.

But as this video shows, dignitaries really should leave demolition to the professionals!

The EDA presidency changed hands this weekend; and we captured the event live.

As we reported earlier today, the European Demolition Association has a new president, Giuseppe Panseri. The official handover took place this weekend at the Hall of Physics in Warsaw, Poland and DemolitionNews.com captured the momentous occasion in this (very raw) multi-lingual video.

Unfortunately, despite its magnificent appearance, the Hall of Physics boasts acoustics that make the video sound like it was recorded inside a large dustbin. But crank up the volume and you will hear the handover by former president Yves Canessa, the acceptance by new president Panseri, and the appointment of new EDA vice-president, Pilar de la Cruz.

DemolitionNews secures world exclusive interview with new EDA president.

The European Demolition Association conference in Warsaw, Poland this past weekend heralded the appointment of a new EDA president, Giuseppe Panseri. In this exclusive interview, Panseri shares his hopes and aspirations with DemolitionNews.com’s Mark Anthony.

What do you think you will bring to the EDA as its new president?
I hope to be able to introduce the EDA to new generations of demolition contractors; the youth is our future.

How will your presidency differ from that of your predecessor, Yves Canessa?
There will not be any major changes – I will continue along the same lines as Yves.

Yves Canessa made it clear that he was looking to expand the EDA into new territories, holding conferences in Turkey and more recently in Poland. Is this something that your presidency will continue to pursue?
The EDA’s aim is to get all European countries into the organisation, but there is no strategic plan to ‘conquer’ any particular part of Europe. Choosing the host countries for conferences is more a logistical than a political decision and also takes into consideration a policy of rotating around the various countries.

What are the primary aims of your presidency?
I have two main aims:
1. To promote and invigorate the new generation of European demolition contractors, and bring them into the EDA.
2. To establish a pan-European system to regulate workers’ qualifications.

The EDA seems stronger and more stable than it was a few years ago. Why is that?
It is down to a combination of factors rather than one single reason. The association has a stronger sense of purpose, as the first European high reach guidance notes demonstrate. An established programme of meetings between the national associations of the different European countries is allowing us to tackle common problems and find shared solutions. And the stability and good work of the Danish secretariat over the past few years has also been very helpful.

The new EDA High Reach Guidance is now complete. What will the association focus on next?
This has not yet been decided, but training is sure to be one of the subjects that the EDA will insist on looking at.

If you were European president for a day, what would you do to improve the demolition industry?
I would have a big clean up. There are too many unqualified companies operating in the market, putting safety at risk and ruining the overall professionalism of the sector.
There should be a system of certification which could establish who is qualified to operate in the demolition industry and who is not.

Ruud Schreijer used the EDA conference to unveil a timely glimpse of the future.

Some people fantasise about fame. Some people fantasise about money. Personally, I tend to fantasise about Keira Knightley being overcome by an uncontrollable and insatiable lust for middle-aged demolition journalists.

Fantastical? Possibly. But is it any more fantastical than the fantasies of Ruud Schreijer, the man behind the world’s largest high reach excavator?

Having conquered the heights, Schreijer is now turning his attention to the depths with a self-propelled underwater attachment to cut down offshore oil rigs without the need for costly heavy lift barges. Looking like something straight from an episode of Thunderbirds, this concept machine would use a series of remotely-controlled thrusters to locate the unit onto the steel sections to be cut. Together with designers from attachment specialist Genesis, Schreijer has even conceived a new style of shear that would weigh around 50 tonnes and that would feature a two function jaw set: the first locking the shear in place; the second cutting the beam.

With an eye to the failed “top kill” attempt to stem the flow of oil into the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico, Schreijer believes that the unit could also be employed to control oil spills. “We could fit the machine with jaw sets containing no cutting blades,” he says. “These could be used to ‘crimp’ a burst pipe to help stem the flow from an oil spill.”

So will this concept machine ever make it off Schreijer’s prolific and imaginative drawing board? “If a contractor ordered one, we could probably have it ready in six months,” Schreijer concludes. “But if President Obama wants one for the Gulf of Mexico leak, we could probably do it in a month!”

The latest edition of our This Week in Demolition email newsletter will be running 24 hours late this week, partly because tomorrow (Monday) is a national holiday in the UK but also because we’re putting the finishing touches to a world exclusive interview with Giuseppe Panseri, the man who became president of the European Demolition Association this weekend.

We trust that you will bear with us while we shake off our Wodka hangovers and make our way back from Warsaw, the Polish capital that has played host to the EDA spring conference for the past three days.

Normal service will be resumed shortly.

DemolitionNews.com will be broadcasting live from the EDA Conference in Poland.

In less than 24 hours, the demolitionnews.com team will have decamped to the Westin Hotel in Warsaw, Poland for what promises to be an interesting and entertaining European Demolition Association Spring Conference. And even if you aren’t making the trip, you can follow all the action as we’re planning to broadcast live in a variety of ways.

Internet technology and wireless connections allowing, we will continue to update the demolitionnews.com news stream although, obviously, it will have a rather Euro-centric feel to it. In addition, you can follow all the action via our Twitter feed or our Facebook fan page.

If you really want to get in on the action, we will be attempting to broadcast live via Ustream, starting with the conference opening address at 10.20 Central European Time on Friday 28 May. And, if Ustream behaves as it’s supposed to, you can even post questions and comments as the conference progresses; it’s not quite the same as being there but we’re hoping it will be the next best thing.

Although itineraries tend to be a little “flexible”, you can see the full programme here, allowing you to pick and choose which bits you eavesdrop in on.

Cultured graffiti site gains another masterpiece.

A few days ago, we featured some photographs of a Button-Linguard site in the UK that had spontaneously attracted a whole host of high-brow graffiti and imitation artwork.

Well, it’s been a few days but the artisits have been busy again, according to Button-Linguard’s Roy Gibbons who sent us this photo.

Apparently, this latest masterpiece fills an entire 8 x 4 sheet, making it the largest installation in this temporary gallery!

Video footage of yesterday’s K-Reactor cooling tower finally emerges.

The implosion of the 137 metre (450 feet) tall Savannah River Site’s K-reactor may have taken place away from the prying eyes of the media, but that hasn’t stopped us bringing you the footage as promised. Our thanks, as always, to Robert Kulinski for helping us track this down:

Update: We have just received an email from Stacey Loizeaux at Loizeaux Group LLC to tell us that there’s an even better video on their YouTube channel which you can see here.

Reporters denied access to Savannah River Site’s K-reactor cooling tower implosion.

Aside from explosives and exclusion zones, there are certain things that are common at implosions around the world: A large crowd of onlookers; someone cursing loudly when the blast wave rocks them on their heels; and more video cameras than a Japanese coach party.

So it’s somewhat surprising to report that reporters were denied access to a major implosion in Augusta earlier today. Standing at (450 feet) in height, the K-Reactor structure is reportedly the second largest cooling tower in the world to be imploded. So we would have expected the media and YouTube enthusiasts to be all over this like a bad suit.

But, since that’s not the case, you can read more about the “top secret” project here while we try to find a backdoor source of some video footage to share with you.

And, in the meantime, here’s a video that was shot before the implosion took place:

Excavator operator lucky to be alive after 20-metre square slab collapses.

Police say it’s remarkable no one was killed when a massive concrete slab collapsed at a demolition site in the Sydney CBD this evening. Three pedestrians received minor injuries when the collapse caused debris and scaffolding from the work site to blow out on to the footpath on Pitt Street just after 4pm.

More than 20 workers on the site, where the old Greater Union cinema stood, were lucky to escape unharmed, police said.

It is not yet known what caused the collapse but the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union says a worker was operating an excavator on the site when he felt the slab beneath him vibrate strangely.

“We had a worker operating a machine on a 20 metre by 20 metre slab, he felt some rumbles on the slab, he felt the slab was about to go,” CFMEU assistant state secretary Brian Parker said. The slab did eventually go and when it went he rode it down in the machine. He had enough time to brace himself which was lucky.”

City Central local area commander, Superintendent Mick Fuller, said the timing and location of the accident meant that many more people could have been hurt.

“We’re very lucky that no one was killed,” Superintendent Fuller said.

Read more here.