News in brief

The Institute of Materials has launched a continuing professional development (CPD)certification scheme for engineers, designed to 'enhance their skills and knowledge on a wide range of technical and business-related subjects.'

Happy birthday to NEL

The National Engineering Laboratory has celebrated its 50th anniversary. The lab, based in East Kilbride, was privatised in 1995.

A drop in the ocean

The Environment Agency has fined ICI£7000 for an 'avoidable' discharge of four tonnes of methyl methacrylate and methanol into the Tees estuary adjacent to its Billingham complex. The discharge, last January. occurred because a watertight area designed to catch spills had been full of rainwater. The Tees estuary is a protected habitat, and the court ruled that the company should have taken greater precautions.

Only here for the beer

Alfa Laval is to embark on a £3million project to extend the capacity of Russia's biggest brewery, the Baltika in St Petersburg. The company supplied separators, clean-in-place equipment and extended the fermentation cellar, helping to boost the brewery's capacity from 36million litres/yr to 179million litres/yr.

Buys of the black stuff

Degussa is to build a new production plant for carbon black in Brazil, with a capacity of some 50000tpa, set to open in 1999.

Chemical weapons conflab

The National Authority Advisory Committee on the Chemical Weapons Convention has held its first meeting. Chaired by Royal Society of Chemistry secretary-general Tom Inch, the committee will advise on compliance with the CWC, and on incoming inspections of facilities which make or handle materials which could be used as, or in, chemical weapons. Other members of the committee include the Government Chemist, Richard Worswick; Julian Perry Robinson of the Science Policy Research Unit; and Tony Phillips, senior scientific advisor of the Chemical and Biological Defence Sector at Porton Down.