• Detecting rusted metal encased in concrete structures

    Many of the problems of aging infrastructure owe to rusting metal; trouble is, much of that metal is encased in concrete — in bridges, tunnels, dams, roads; new technology uses electromagnetic fields to measure corrosion through non-ferrous material

  • New sensors to monitor health of U.S. infrastructure

    Northeastern University researchers are working on developing new sensor systems for cars and trucks that will allow road and bridge infrastructure to be assessed in real-time across the United States

  • SwissCopter in $15 million Middle East deal

    Swiss developer of manned and unmanned systems for surveillance and search-and-rescue — and the innovative software these systems use — receives an order from an “unnamed Middle Eastern government”

  • States, localities are slow to repair poorly maintained levees

    Two years ago the U.S. government identified 122 levees as too poorly maintained to be reliable in major floods; only forty-five of them had necessary repairs; people living behind the unrepaired levees should be concerned

  • More secure European electrical grid

    Several European Transmission System Operators (TSOs) launch a new initiative designed to improve electrical systems security throughout Europe

  • Mobile security market to reach $890 million by 2011

    Mobile security market will continue to grow, driven by backhaul and data center upgrades

  • Day of smart grid nears

    Major blackouts may be a thing of the past: the world’s first high-voltage Li-ion system can connect to the grid, without a transformer, and immediately turn on if there is a disruption in power

  • Briefly noted

    The principles which should guide Obama’s $700 billion infrastructure plan… Cisco becomes infrastructure player on Obama tech focus… EU piracy mission chief calls for more surveillance equipment

  • Making older buildings safer during earthquakes

    Buildings being built now in earthquake-prone regions are designed better to withstand tremors; trouble is, for a long while yet, most of the buildings in which people live and work were built before new earthquake-related design concepts and new materials were available; UC San Diego researchers look for ways to make these buildings safer

  • FBI: Growing copper theft threatens U.S. critical infrastructure

    The FBI says that, individually, isolated instances of copper theft cause big enough headaches of their own, but taken together, they present a significant problem for the United States — a threat to public safety and to U.S. critical infrastructure

  • NIST releases final WTC 7 report

    NIST releases final version of its investigation into the collapse of World Trade Center building 7; heating of floor beams and girders caused a critical support column to fail, initiating a fire-induced progressive collapse that brought the building down

  • Can China's future earthquakes be predicted?

    To predict earthquakes, China relied on GPS data, which showed movements of two millimeters per year in certain areas of Szechwan province where a May 2008 earthquake killed 70,000 people (20,000 are still missing) and destroyed more than eight million homes; scientists examine a better way to predict disasters

  • Briefly noted

    Obama administration looks to fill more than 300 IT positions… Larger inmate population is boon to private prisons… More attacks on critical infrastructure?

  • Energy industry likely prime cyber attack target

    Critical infrastructure insiders say the energy industry is also the most vulnerable to cyber attacks and would have the most detrimental breach

  • Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository too small

    Congress has placed a 77,000-ton limit on the amount of nuclear waste that can be buried in Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository (the repository will open in 2020 at the earliest); trouble is, the 104 active U.S. nuclear reactors, together with the Pentagon, produce that amount of waste in two years