January 25th Joint Meeting of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and FERC: Docket No. AD06-6-000. Given the close coupling of electric and natural gas supply with respect to power reliability, the mind boggles at the hostility of the Biden Administration to natural gas anywhere on earth. Natural gas is critical to generation plant black start capabilities and hospitals, among others.
A selection of the presentations:
“Long Term Reliability Assessment” – Presented by Mark Lauby, Senior Vice President and Chief Engineer, NERC
“Grid Reliability Overview & Updates” – Presented by David Ortiz, Director of the Office of Electric Reliability
“Status of Standards and Implementation for Cold Weather Preparedness and Applicability to Nuclear Plants” – Presented by David Huff, Electrical Engineer, Office of Electric Reliability
“Gas-Electric Coordination Since Winter Storm Uri” – Presented by Heather Polzin, Reliability Enforcement Counsel, Office of Enforcement
“Overview of Power Reactor Activities” – Presented by Andrea Kock, Deputy Office Director for Engineering, NRR
“Grid Reliability Updates” – Presented by Jason Paige, Chief, Long-Term Operations and Modernization Branch, Division of Engineering and External Hazards, NRR
In 2025, U.S. data centers saw explosive expansion fueled by AI and hyperscale demand. Grid power demand rose ~22% to ~61.8 GW (up 11.3 GW from 2024). Electricity use built on 2024’s ~183 TWh (>4% national total), with vacancy hitting record lows (~1.6–2.8%) and inventory surging in markets like Atlanta (+969 MW in H1). Under-construction capacity reached historic highs amid power constraints in core hubs.
Source: CBRE, S&P Global, DOE reports (as of Jan 2026)
Google Data Center
As of today — January 13, 2026 — NTIA has not published the anticipated report synthesizing these inputs, but it is expected to outline challenges, opportunities, and policy options. For the latest, monitor NTIA’s newsroom or regulations.gov docket NTIA-2024-0001, where over 100 comments have been logged since the RFC’s launch
While no final NTIA report has been released as of January 2026, the RFC and listening session have influenced adjacent policy discussions. For example, a July 2025 White House AI Action Plan referenced streamlined permitting for data centers as part of national AI priorities. Additionally, a January 2025 Executive Order (EO 14141) and subsequent efforts, like the Department of the Air Force’s proposals for AI data centers on military bases, tie into the themes of secure and resilient infrastructure growth. A GAO report from April 2025 also cited the NTIA RFC in discussions of generative AI’s environmental effects, noting potential technical innovations to mitigate issues.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration requests comments on the challenges surrounding data center growth, resilience and security in the United States amidst a surge of computing power demand due to the development of critical and emerging technologies. This request focuses on identifying opportunities for the U.S. government to improve data centers’ market development, supply chain resilience, and data security. NTIA will rely on these comments, along with other public engagements on this topic, to draft and issue a public report capturing economic and security policy considerations and policy recommendations for fostering safe, secure, and sustainable data center growth.
Written comments must be received on or before November 4, 2024.
The University has been exploring options for its aging Ice Arena (built in 1931) since at least 2022, including potential renovations or a new off-campus facility. The current arena requires significant upgrades for ADA compliance, structural repairs, windows, roof, and ice mat replacement to serve its users (hockey clubs, figure skating, public skating, etc.). It’s funded primarily by student fees, and decisions involve student referendums. So early in the concept phase numbers fly — recently $50 million.
Abstract: This paper presents a broad view of management of design and implementation of power systems for Data Centers. The paper outlines many challenges that are present because of the demanding requirements of Data Centers both in design and management, then introduces opportunities that recent technological advances have made possible. This paper presents several new approaches of ownership and responsibilities that directly affect financial viability of the Data Center.
“View from the Ancient Theater in Taormina to Mount Etna” c. 1880 Carl Wuttke
Safety and sustainability for any facility begins with an understanding of who shall occupy it. University settings, with mixed-use phenomenon arising spontaneously and temporarily, present challenges and no less so in square-footage identified as performing arts facilities. Education communities present the largest installed base of mixed use and performing arts facilities. A distinction is made between supervised occupants that are in secondary schools (generally under age 18) and unsupervised occupants that are in university facilities (generally above age 18).
First principles regarding occupancy classifications for performing arts facilities appear in Section 303 of the International Building Code Assembly Group A-1. The public edition of the 2021 IBC is linked below:
Each of the International Code Council code development groups A, B and C; fetch back to these classifications. You can sample the safety concepts in play with an examination of the document linked below:
Each of the foregoing documents are lengthy so we recommend using search terms such as “school”, “college”, ‘”university”, “auditorium”, “theater”, “children”, “student” to hasten your cut through it.
We find continuation of lowering of the lighting power densities as noteworthy. Technical committees assembled and managed by the International Code Council, the American Society of Heating & Refrigeration Engineers and the Illumination Engineering Society are leaders in developing consensus products that drive the LED illumination transformation.
The revision schedule for the next tranche of ICC titles that are built upon the foundation of the IBC is linked below:
We encourage experts in education communities — facility managers, research and teaching staff, architectural and engineering students — to participate directly in the ICC Code Development process at the link below:
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Richard Robben
The International Code Council (ICC) develops its codes and standards through a consensus-driven process. The ICC Code Development Process follows these major stages:
Code Change Proposal Submission
Stakeholders (e.g., government officials, industry professionals, and the public) submit proposals to modify existing codes or introduce new provisions.
Committee Action Hearing (CAH)
Expert committees review and evaluate submitted proposals.
Public testimony is allowed, and committees vote on whether to approve, disapprove, or modify the proposals.
Public Comment Period
After the CAH, the public can submit comments or suggest modifications to the committee’s decisions.
These comments help refine the proposed changes before final voting.
Public Comment Hearing (PCH)
ICC members discuss and vote on public comments.
This step ensures that all voices are heard and debated before finalizing changes.
Online Governmental Consensus Vote (OGCV)
Governmental members vote on the final code changes electronically.
Only governmental voting members (e.g., code officials) participate in this stage to ensure the process remains unbiased.
Publication of New Code Edition
Approved code changes are incorporated into the next edition of the ICC codes.
The ICC updates its codes every three years (e.g., 2021, 2024, 2027 editions).
This structured process ensures that ICC codes remain comprehensive, up-to-date, and responsive to industry needs while maintaining safety and functionality.
The development of standardized time zones, which became more widespread in the 19th century with the advent of the railroad and telegraph, influenced urban planning and architecture. Cities needed to coordinate schedules and activities, affecting the layout and design of public spaces, transportation hubs, buildings and the movement of children.
The invention and widespread adoption of clocks and watches allowed for more precise timekeeping. This precision influenced the synchronization of activities, schedules, and, consequently, the design of buildings and public spaces. It also impacted the design of interiors, with spaces allocated for timepieces in classrooms and athletic events.
What is now identified as the Industrial Revolution introduced a more rigid and standardized work schedule; including the time set aside for formal education away from the family kitchen table.
Campus planners incorporate temporal elements into their design itself, creating spaces that change over time. This might involve the play of light and shadow during different times of the day or the use of materials that weather and evolve over the years.
Today we account for our work in shaping the literature for time standards relevant to educational settlements. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
Jeff Bezos is building a monumental 10,000-year clock in the mountains.
Here’s the reason why:
“10,000 year clock is a physical clock of monumental scale. It’s about 500 feet tall. It’s inside a mountain in west Texas in a chamber that’s about 12 feet in diameter and 500 feet… pic.twitter.com/lg9mYOJmnT
“A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery” | Joseph Wright (1766)
Most nations follow the day/month/year format (07/01/19 for January 7, 2019, for example), but the United States adheres to its own format of month/day/year (1/7/19 or 1/7/2019). The potential for misinterpreting dates across national boundaries is the logic for ISO 8601:2019 – Data Elements And Interchange Formats – Information Interchange – Representation Of Dates And Times, the ISO format for dates represents year, month, and day from the largest unit to the smallest, most specific unit of time. The ISO date format is the date format used in SQL and is the default date setting on many computers.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is responsible for maintaining and disseminating official time in the United States. While NIST does not have a direct role in implementing clock changes for daylight saving time, it does play an important role in ensuring that timekeeping systems across the country are accurate and consistent.
Prior to the implementation of daylight saving time, NIST issues public announcements reminding individuals and organizations to adjust their clocks accordingly. NIST also provides resources to help people synchronize their clocks, such as the time.gov website and the NIST radio station WWV.
In addition, NIST is responsible for developing and maintaining the atomic clocks that are used to define Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the international standard for timekeeping. UTC is used as the basis for all civil time in the United States, and it is the reference time used by many systems, including the Global Positioning System (GPS) and the internet.
Overall, while NIST does not have a direct role in implementing clock changes for daylight saving time, it plays an important role in ensuring that timekeeping systems across the country are accurate and consistent, which is essential for the smooth implementation of any changes to the system.
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwBpic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
