• DOE removes from its Web site a guide on nuclear plant air attacks

    Since 2008 the Department of Energy’s Web site offered the public a virtual how-to manual for attacking a nuclear plant with an airplane; The document showed the areas that a plane could hit at a reactor with maximum effect, and it cited buildings or targets that a plane could strike and cause radioactive release; the document has now been removed

  • Flooding risks along the Mississippi River underestimated by Army Corps of Engineers

    Scientists argue that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in an effort to correct old data on water flows in the Mississippi, may have led to underestimates of the current risk of flooding on the Mississippi between the Ohio and Missouri Rivers, and to inadequate preparations by government agencies

  • Cybersecurity incidents in industrial control systems on the rise

    The good news is that only about 10 percent of U.S. industrial control systems are actually connected to the Internet; the bad news is that even with minimal Internet access, malware and breaches are increasingly occurring in utility, process control systems; cybersecurity incidents in petroleum and petrochemical control systems have declined significantly over the past five years — down more than 80 percent — but water and wastewater have increased 300 percent, and power/utilities by 30 percent

  • Calls grow for federalizing government building security

    DHS’s Federal Protective Service (FPS) has a budget of about $1 billion, and employs 1,225 full-time workers and 15,000 contract security guards at more than 2,300 federal facilities nationwide; in fiscal 2009 the service obligated $659 million for guards, the single largest item in its budget; a GAO reports criticizes the work of many of the guards and the contracts which employ them, and lawmakers debate whether to federalize federal buildings security responsibilities

  • Critical surge barrier on New Orleans's eastern flank completed ahead of schedule

    A 7,490 ft.-long storm-surge protection wall that is the central part of a roughly two-mile long surge barrier in New Orleans is being completed several months ahead of schedule; the placement of a significant portion of the barrier, well ahead of the start of the 2010 hurricane season, adds a welcome level of defense on the city’s eastern flank

  • Louisiana officials to visit the Netherlands to learn Dutch flood protection methods

    The Dutch are widely hailed as having the best investment in flood protection in the world; much of the country’s densely populated areas are below sea level, and after a storm struck in 1953 and flooded 80 percent of the Netherlands, the Dutch became even more serious about flood protection

  • To avoid cyberwar and protect infrastructure -- fight cybercrime first

    Fighting cybercrime is the first step to avoiding cyberwar, protecting infrastructure; Christopher Painter, the White House’s senior director for cybersecurity: “There are a couple of things we need to do to harden [critical infrastructure] targets” — “But the other thing you need to do is reduce the threat. And the predominant threat we face is the criminal threat — the cybercrime threat in all of its varied aspects”

  • Fiber polymer replaces steel bars in major building projects

    UAE University researchers have developed an inexpensive alternative to demolishing damaged buildings and rebuilding them: using FRP (fiber reinforced polymer); FRP can be used in strengthening and repair instead of concrete or steel jacketing, which are labor intensive; moreover, concrete and steel jacketing systems are also often vulnerable to the same deterioration mechanism that caused the problem in the first place

  • Studies agree on a rise in sea levels of between 0.7 and 1.2 meters during the next 100 years

    A joint study by universities and research institutions from England, China, and Denmark finds that IPCC 2007 estimates that sea level would rise by less than half a meter in the next 100 years were too low; the researchers now estimate that sea levels will rise between 0.7 and 1.2 meters during the next 100 years; instead of using temperature to calculate the rise in sea levels, the researchers have used the radiation balance on Earth — taking into account both the warming effect of greenhouse gasses and the cooling effect from the sulfur clouds of large volcanic eruptions, which block radiation

  • Study: U.S. Northeast seeing more, fiercer rainstorms

    Rainstorms in the U.S. Northeast have become more frequent and fiercer over the last six decades; there is a debate whether or not this 60-year trend is an indication of, or is related to, global warming; what is more certain is the potential economic impact should the 60-year trend continue, requiring billions of dollars in infrastructure improvements to things in the region including roads, bridges, sewers, and culverts

  • New software spots vulnerabilities in flood defenses

    Spanish researchers develop a computer system could provide more detailed flood-risk information; the system developed at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) identifies flood risks more quickly and effectively than satellite imagery, particularly in areas where there are dramatic changes in land over small spaces

  • Federal IT professionals: Cyberattack on U.S. critical infrastructure looming

    More than half of federal IT professionals surveyed believe the potential is “high” for a cyberattack from a foreign nation against critical IT infrastructure in the next year; moreover, 42 percent of them think the U.S. government’s ability to prevent or handle such an attack is merely fair to poor.

  • Hearing to be held on lack of chemical plant inspections

    There are about 15,000 chemical plants in the United States; 6,000 of them were supposed to be inspected by DHS to make sure their security protocols comply with the current Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards program, or CFATS, but only 12 have been inspected

  • Protecting structures by tracking down rust

    Damage to concrete bridges caused by rust can have fatal consequences, at worst leading to a total collapse; now, researchers have developed an early-warning system for rust; sensor-transponders integrated in the concrete allow the extent of corrosion to be measured

  • The lessons of Chile earthquake to California building code

    Since the Chile earthquake, many U.S. engineers have visited Santiago and other affected cities to study the failures and successes of building codes here; Chile is of particular interest to American engineers because it employs similar building codes to those in California and also has widespread use of reinforced concrete; one observation from Chile’s earthquake that could find its way into U.S. building code concerns confining reinforcement; confining reinforcement is meant to keep vertical bars from bucking, but the design proved insufficient in Chile; one solution: requiring confining reinforcement along a greater length of the wall