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Overview
of Lonesome Mine, IMC/Agrico, Florida, site of the Ore Transport
Development System, a joint project of Florida Institute for Phosphate
Research, IMC/Agrico, Magplane Technology, Inc. and MTechnology,
Inc.
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| Foundation | |
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MTechnology, Inc. (MTech) has been applying the science of Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) to the problem of high-availability electric power suitable for computers, Internet industries, and other mission-critical facilities since 1996. MTech was founded by Dr. Bruce Montgomery, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and designer of world-record holding electromagnets, upon his retirement from MIT. |
Steve Fairfax joined the firm in 1997 after several years work with Failure Analysis Associates, the nation's largest consulting firm specializing in the analysis of technical failures. Steve and Bruce had previously worked together for over 20 years in nuclear fusion energy research at MIT. Steve was chief engineer for the Alcator C-MOD fusion reactor, and Bruce the primary magnet designer for all three generations of Alcator high magnetic field tokamaks built at MIT. |
| Philosophy | |
| Both men were drawn to the study of failure and reliability by the challenges of building and reliably operating complex fusion reactor systems. Steve left MIT in 1994 to pursue this study full-time at Failure Analysis Associates. He worked there under Dr. Alexander Kusko, a nationally recognized authority on standby and emergency power systems, and author of numerous books and papers on that subject. Steve observed that while 7x24 facilities understood their needs for high-availability power, few if any were aware of the scientific and engineering tools available. MTechnology has been working since its foundation to extend and adapt PRA techniques from military and civilian nuclear applications into the commercial marketplace. | |
| Expertise & Experience | |
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MTechnology led the availability study of the world's first purely commercial high-availability fuel cell array, installed at the First National Bank of Omaha in early 1999. MTechnology applied probabilistic risk assessment techniques to estimate the unavailability of the custom power system designed for the bank by Sure Power Corporation. The studies conducted by MTech were the basis for a unique performance guarantee of the system unavailability. The contract between Sure Power Corporation and the First National Bank of Omaha required that the system design be certified capable of achieving availability of at least 99.999%, with 99.9999% the contractual target. (See Long-term Availability of the Sure Power System Installation at the First National Technology Center.) MTech's clients include data center operators, manufacturers of UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) equipment, high-availability system designers and integrators, and other consultants working the 7x24 industries. Steve has published numerous papers on fusion engineering, practical man-machine interface techniques, and a paper on UPS technology with Dr. Kusko. Steve co-authored and presented a 2-day short course entitled Real Availability with Dr. Michael Golay of the MIT Nuclear Engineering Department, and has made numerous presentations to industry organizations such as the 7x24 Exchange and the Digital Power Report Powercosm conferences. |
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