What really matters here is that this is a very clean fuel and from this video you can see that the safety standards are there, who came up with the idea come secondary.

Will you still be of the same opinion when the economics dictate we have four of those tanks and not two?

It will be imperative, match the plant to the ships you see. Cunning plan.

The idiot said one of the options considered was having the tanks undergound.

The underlying method to safety is to disperse as fast as possible, any gas which may leak. This is, what is termed, the fundamental.

Need I say more?

One Hiroshima’s enough.

Unless we’re doing a Truman here.

Dr Frank Portelli spoke of this in a recent TVAM edition. He was referring to the proposed 60,000cbm LNG storage at Delimara, which would (according to Portelli) contain the equivalent energy of 17 Hiroshimas. Actually, it’s closer to 21.

Now that assumes that all of the 60,000cbm would explode in one instant. Of course, that cannot happen because LNG does not burn before it evaporates and turns into gas. LNG does turn into gas when exposed to normal ambient temperature, but 60,000cbm of LNG are not going to evaporate in an instant for it to burn and release all that energy at once.

A full LNG storage tank presents no risks of explosion, but the emptier it gets, the greater the risk because the “empty” space will be full of evaporated LNG and that’s what would explode. But even this gas needs to be mixed with the right amount of air for it to burn or explode. Let’s assume for argument’s sake that a freakish sequence of events in the right conditions would result in this stored evaporated LNG exploding. This would of course rupture the tank, exposing the remaining liquid to ambient temperature causing it to evaporate and burn.

The point is that these would happen in sequence, and the total stored energy can never be released in an instant for the explosion to be compared to a Hiroshima bomb.

So, in effect, there are no 21 Hiroshimas to speak of in the initial explosion – the energy released depends on the amount of evaporated gas in the tanks. But there will be an explosion followed by heavy fires (caused by the now evaporating LNG) none the less, with the high probability of wiping out the nearby power station.

And there lies the real concern. In the event of such a catastrophe, the interconnector could offer some relief, in the sense that this could be up and running in a relatively short time, but even when running at full capacity, this does not provide for all the island’s needs, and it would be a number of years before power is fully restored.

[Daphne – I hope you realise that the debate is not between gas and heavy fuel oil, but between the Nationalist Party’s gas pipeline + interconnector cable from Sicily (using existing power station through conversion) and the Labour Party’s new power station/LNG marine terminal and gas storage tanks]

No. Just sea. I mean no nothing. No Malta. No Italy. No Mediterranean basin. No Europe. No Northern Africa. No Middle East. Nothing.

FIFTY-FIVE A-BOMBS. FIFTY-FIVE!

Have you ever seen an itemised telephone bill? It shows you, call by call, to which number it was made, how long it lasted and how much it cost you.

Do you think that the smart meters are not capable of keeping track of what is being used and when? It’s not rocket science.

Do you think Malta will be the only country with a different tariff at night?

Imbasta tmaqdru kollox. L-anqas tafu xi tkunu qeghdin tghidu.

He may just be in it for the fame and the power. He seems like a typical case of “revenge of the nerd”.

If he’s so intelligent, why is did he come back to hibernate on a fourteen-by-nine mile rock? His high-flying career, it pains me to tell you, is over.