About a year after the program was restarted, the Boeing Co. says it has demonstrated that its experimental unmanned underwater reconnaissance vehicle can be sent out and retrieved by a submerged, moving submarine.

The unmanned craft was released at sea through one of the torpedo tubes from a U.S. Navy attack submarine. The vehicle returned to the sub, where it was drawn back through a torpedo tube by the system's robotic arm.

The submarine retrieved the craft on its first attempt and repeated the maneuver two days later.

Boeing said that the vehicle, designated AN/BLQ 11, also performed several complex maneuvers on its own during the tests, including station keeping and one called "shadow submarine," in which the unmanned craft operated underwater alongside the host submarine.

The craft contains side and front scanning sonar. It uses inertial guidance and GPS tracking to navigate and to reunite with the submarine. When the vehicle is back onboard, data can be downloaded and analyzed. The system can detect obstacles and minefields down to the positions of individual mines.

Boeing began work on the system in 1999. It was tested in January 2006, but the system's 60-foot robotic recovery arm suffered a mechanical failure during the test and the unmanned vehicle was not retrieved as planned. Boeing received an $11 million contract early in 2007 to repair the arm and continue development.

The ASME Digital Library, an online database of the Society's journals, conference proceedings, and ASME Press E-Books, will officially open in January 2008. The site currently hosts ASME's journals dating back to 2000.

Beginning in January, ASME will begin adding 10 more years to the journal archive and will add content continuously in 10-year increments. The library will also eventually include more than 30,000 conference proceedings papers, both current and archival, and ASME Press E-Books dating back to 1999.

The ASME Digital Library is available at asmedl.org, which is hosted on Scitation, the publishing platform of the American Institute of Physics. According to ASME, functions of the site will include cross-journal searching, links to primary publishers and databases, and a suite of personalization tools.

Current subscribing members will have access to the new service, and various package subscriptions, primarily designed for libraries, will also be available.

One of the largest producers of energy in the United States, Dominion, has agreed to purchase a power station development project in central Virginia from Tenaska, one of the nation's largest independent power producers. The station will generate about 600 megawatts of electricity when completed.

The 35-acre project is part of a 665-acre parcel in Buckingham County and already has air and water permits for a combined-cycle, natural gas-fired power station. Dominion, based in Richmond, Va., plans to build a 2-on-1 unit, in which two gas turbines generate electricity and exhaust heat produces steam to generate additional electricity from a third turbine.

Regulatory approvals are required before construction can begin. The project is expected to generate 300 construction jobs. The station will employ 20 people full-time once it is built.

A manufacturer of fasteners from Pennsylvania went to a trade show in Las Vegas and wound up filing a patent-infringement suit on the spot against six exhibitors.

PennEngineering, based in Danboro, Pa., is charging that the companies were offering products for sale that violated one or more of its patents. The suit says a number of products are involved, including various designs of panel fasteners and self-clinching fasteners.

Named in the suit are Shanghai Jingyang Import & Export Co. Ltd., Clinching Fasteners Co. Ltd., Shenzhen Hongyijin Metal Co. Ltd., Dongtai City Huawei Standard Component Corp., Finexpress Fastener Co. Ltd., and Richard Manno & Co. Inc.

The action has been assigned to Judge Philip M. Pro.

The National Society of Professional Engineers says it is seeking innovative products and their inventors for consideration in the New Product Awards program.

To be eligible, entries must be products, machines, processes, or materials developed in the U.S. and first placed on the market between 2002 and 2006. Entries are judged on the product's improved function, sales and economic impact, and innovative use of engineering principles. Awards are made in four categories based on the size of companies.

The deadline for entries is Feb. 15, 2008. Details are available at www. nspe.org/npa.

A manufacturer of alternative fuel engines, Cummins Westport Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia, says U.S. buyers of vehicles that carry its engines can get tax credits worth $20,000 or more from Uncle Sam.

According to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, buyers of medium and heavy-duty vehicles with alternative fuel engines can be eligible for tax credit.

Cummins Westport calculates that buyers may be eligible for tax credits of $20,000 U.S. per vehicle on medium-duty vehicles with a gross weight between 14,001 and 26,000 pounds, and $32,000 U.S. for heavy-duty vehicles over 26,000 lbs. equipped with the company's ISL G natural gas engine. The calculation is based on the Alternative Fuel Motor Vehicle Credit, part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Some limitations to the credit may apply, depending on the specific circumstances of the customer, and Cummins Westport recommends that buyers contact the IRS or a tax advisor to determine if and how a tax credit may apply to trucks they plan to purchase.

The U.S. Department of Energy has notified Battelle Energy Alliance that it intends to fine the company $123,750 for violations of nuclear safety requirements.

BEA is the prime contractor for the operation of the Neutron Radiography Reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory.

The reactor, which is used to non-destructively examine irradiated materials, had a history of being difficult to restart after periods of disuse. During a restart on Aug. 20, 2006, the reactor shut down and staff attempted again to start it.

The DOE said that at no time was reactor safety compromised, but the agency charges that violations in the incident include failures to adhere to technical safety requirements and reactor operating instructions, inadequacies in the reactor operating instructions, and failure to adequately conduct management assessments in reactor operations.

In a Preliminary Notice of Violation sent to the company, DOE also said, "Battelle Energy Alliance failed to appropriately address the problem in the 18-month interval since assuming responsibilities as the prime contractor in February 2005 and the occurrence of this event in August 2006."

The agency said the proposed civil penalty of $123,750 is based on the significance of the violations, but is mitigated because Battelle Energy Alliance identified the issues and has taken corrective action.

The notice was issued on Dec. 3, and BEA had 30 days to respond with any objections.

The DOE has published details of this and other enforcement actions on the Internet at www.hss.doe.gov/enforce.

A maker of flow-analysis software, Flomerics of Marlborough, Mass., has released version 8.1 of its Engineering Fluid Dynamics simulation software for thermal analysis of electronics.

Algor Inc. of Pittsburgh has released version 21 of its Algor finite element analysis software. The new release upgrades the entire FEA spectrum: modeling, results evaluation, and presentation, according to the developer.

Panda Energy Inc. of Dallas plans to build a 1,000-megawatt combined-cycle power plant in Temple, Texas. The natural gas-fueled generating station will be able to supply the power needs of approximately 750,000 homes in central and north Texas.

LSI Computer Systems Inc. of Melville, N.Y., has come out with a new high-performance stepper motor controller integrated circuit, called the LS7290. The new IC is capable of step sizes ranging between full and 1/32 step. The LS7290 is designed to control two-phase bipolar stepper motors or four-phase unipolar stepper motors with a minimum burden on the resources of a host micro-controller.

Parker Hannifin of Cleveland has acquired the Texas Thermowell Industries business of Bravura Ltd., a leader in temperature sensing protection equipment. Parker purchased the Texas Thermowell business, based in Beaumont, Texas, for an undisclosed amount.

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