• Millions of Americans at risk of flooding as sea levels rise

    Nearly four million Americans, residing in a combined area larger than the state of Maryland, find themselves at risk of severe flooding as sea levels rise in the coming century, new research suggests; in terms of population, Florida is the most vulnerable, closely followed by Louisiana, California, New York, and New Jersey

  • iPads allow judges to sign warrants anywhere

    Getting local judges to sign last minute warrants just got a lot easier with iPads

  • PG&E pays additional $70 million for San Bruno natural gas explosion

    On Monday, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) announced that it will pay $70 million to residents of San Bruno, California after one of the utility’s natural gas pipelines erupted killing eight people and destroying nearly forty homes

  • Innovative CCTV protects copper cables

    The theft of copper cables has cost the British economy an estimated £770 million a year over the last few years; British company which rely on copper cables to deliver their services are deploying an innovative CCTV to combat the thieves

  • Molecule may aid nuclear waste clean-up

    Scientists have produced a previously unseen uranium molecule in a move that could improve clean-up of nuclear waste

  • Tighter regulation of industry’s disaster preparedness required

    Before 11 March 2011, Japan was held up as a paragon for preparedness; they had a national readiness plan, regular disaster drills, and strong civic engagement; the Fukushima disaster exposed a disturbing reality: search and rescue efforts were delayed, shelters ill-equipped, and supply chains broken; worst of all, there was confusion about who was managing the nuclear accident — the power company TEPCO or the Japanese government; information, when forthcoming, was sometimes contradictory

  • New material for sustainable road building: "poticrete"

    An organization dedicated to promoting sustainable roadway construction, awarded its first official certification to a Bellingham, Washington, project that incorporates porcelain from recycled toilets; a newly widened sidewalk in Bellingham incorporates more than 400 recycled toilets, crushed into what the project engineers have dubbed “poticrete”

  • NYC cyberattack simulation to spur Senate cybersecurity legislation

    Last Wednesday, in an attempt to bolster support for cybersecurity legislation, the White House staged a mock cyberattack on New York City’s power supply for the Senate

  • Fukushima lesson: be ready for unanticipated nuclear accidents

    A year after the Fukushima disaster all but two of Japan’s fifty-four nuclear reactors remain shut down, in a country where nuclear power once supplied nearly 30 percent of the electricity; the Japanese government is awarding an initial $13 billion in contracts to begin decontamination and rehabilitation of the more than 8,000-square-mile region most exposed to radioactive fallout

  • The future of nuclear energy

    While the lessons of the 11 March 2011 Fukushima disaster are being absorbed, the United States is moving forward with nuclear power; for the first time since 1978, the U.S. National Regulatory Commission has approved two new plants; the $14 billion facilities will be built just outside Augusta, Georgia

  • National Academies calls for expanded nuclear-fusion research

    A report out on Wednesday from the National Academies says university researchers studying nuclear fusion still have a long way to go before overcoming the many scientific hurdles to the commercial generation of what is hoped to be a virtually limitless supply of energy

  • Better policies needed to reduce radiation exposure in nuclear accidents

    A new study says that offsite policies and plans should be put in place to reduce the exposure of the public to radiation in the event of a nuclear power plant accident

  • Shift to green energy could mean crunch in rare Earth metals supply

    A large-scale shift from coal-fired electric power plants and gasoline-fueled cars to wind turbines and electric vehicles could increase demand for two already-scarce metals — available almost exclusively in China — by 600-2,600 percent over the next twenty-five years

  • New material to improve efficiency of power grids

    Global energy demand is on the rise, as populations continue to grow and industrialization progresses; at the same time, there is a growing awareness and concern about repercussions of increasing rates of carbon dioxide emissions released in the atmosphere; a new nanocomposite material holds the promise of enabling smarter, more reliable, and greener power systems

  • Infrastructure security, disaster planning “Super map” developed

    A U.S. Marine stationed at the Quantico base in Virginia has developed sophisticated mapping software that can give users full situational awareness of their surroundings in real-time; the software is a “super map” taking in a torrent of data streams from emergency dispatch reports to weather forecasts, traffic reports, and security system alerts