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Railroads May Use Their Monopoly Power to Buffer Coal Plants from a Carbon Emissions Tax
Railroads are likely to cut transportation prices to prop up coal-fired plants if U.S. climate policies further disadvantage coal in favor of less carbon-intensive energy sources. A new study argues that “If policymakers ignore real distortions in the market, like monopoly power in rail shipping, their climate policy efforts may not achieve the intended results.”
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100th Anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake: Is Japan Ready for the Next Big One?
Japan is marking 100 years since a devastating earthquake triggered a widespread inferno in Kanto, a region that includes the capital, Tokyo. Most of the tens of thousands of victims perished in the fire. seismologists put the likelihood of another major quake beneath the Kanto region of Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures at 70% in the next 30 years.
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WIFIRE Lab Forms New Partnership with DHS
For the past 10 years, the WIFIRE team at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego has been focused on meeting the growing needs of hazard monitoring, mitigation and response. Most recently, the team has partnered with DHS to integrate edge computing – a strategy emphasizing data collection and analysis at the site of or geographically near data sources. Joint effort aims to demonstrate workflows utilizing edge computing for wildfire monitoring, response and mitigation.
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The Causes of the 1931 Yangtze River Deluge
In the summer of 1931, an unprecedented calamity unfolded along the Yangtze River basin in eastern China—the 1931 Yangtze River flood, known as one of history’s deadliest natural disasters. This cataclysmic event submerged a staggering 180,000 km2, affected 25 million lives, and claimed over 2 million lives. What caused this monumental flood?
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Significant Design Advances Across Floating Offshore Wind Sector
The UK’s renewable energy sector is well placed to take advantage of the expected boom in floating offshore wind technology. Studies highlight the huge advances in platform technology which have taken place over the past two decades.
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More Efficient Battery Designed for Storing Energy from Wind or Solar Farms
Jimmy Jiang envisions a future where every house is powered by renewable energy stored in batteries — perhaps even those he and his students are designing today.
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Watching Trends: Helping the NRC Model Risk and Reliability
Nuclear power accounts for 0.03 deaths per terawatt-hour of electricity generated, when including both accidents and deaths due to air pollution. This fatality rate is a factor of 820 lower than electricity produced using coal. One reason U.S. nuclear power plants have such an impressive safety record is that utilities embrace a safety culture, one that uses probabilistic risk assessments, also known as PRAs.
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The Future of Grid Energy Storage Starts Today
In a decarbonized, electrified future, next-generation batteries will improve the reliability and resilience of the electrical grid while allowing increased integration of renewable energy. These batteries will also be able to provide backup power during or after natural disasters.
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How ERCOT Is Narrowly Getting Through an Extreme Summer — and How Experts Say It Could Do Better
Record-high power demand and faltering electricity sources have tested the grid in the past month, forcing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to dig deep into its toolbox to keep power flowing.
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German Nuclear Phaseout Leaves Radioactive Waste Problem
While Germany searches for a permanent storage facility for its nuclear waste, it risks sitting on piles of dangerous waste for decades. The problem drains public finances by hundreds of millions of euros every year.
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Structural Engineers Stress-Test the Robustness of the World's Skyscrapers
The safety of tall buildings in the world’s cities, in the face of extreme external traumas like vehicle impacts, blasts or fires, has been tested using a model developed by structural engineers at the University of Surrey – with reassuring results.
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Shutting Off Power to Reduce Wildfire Risk on Windy Days Isn’t a Simple Decision – an Energy Expert Explains the Trade-Offs Electric Utilities Face
Maui County is suing Hawaiian Electric, claiming the utility was negligent for not shutting off power as strong winds hit the island in the hours before the city of Lahaina burned. Electricity is critical infrastructure and a foundational bedrock to many other services, so utilities have to balance the risk of keeping power on with the risks created by shutting power off.
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How Much Wave Energy Is in Our Oceans?
The ocean is never still, but exactly how much energy surges through our ocean waves is a matter of debate. That uncertainty makes it challenging for countries to weave wave energy into their future climate goals. New study could help countries better estimate how much power their waters carry.
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Ms. Nuclear Energy Is Winning Over Nuclear Skeptics
Kaylee Cunningham recognizes that her training as a Ph.D. student in nuclear science and engineering could be for naught if myths continue to plague the industry. The activist is committed to helping — one TikTok at a time.
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A Tropical Storm in California? Warmer Waters and El Niño Made It Possible.
Tropical Storm Hilary made landfall in Mexico and crossed into California last weekend, knocking out power and drenching wide swaths of southern California. Los Angeles received 2.48 inches of rain on Sunday, breaking a single-day record from 1906 of 0.03 inches. Storm Hilary adds to the lengthy list of climate-fueled disasters this summer.
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The long view
From Iron Dome to Cyber Dome: Defending Israel’s Cyberspace
In response to growing attacks against its infrastructure by formidable adversaries like Iran and its proxies, Israel recently announced that they are building a ‘cyber-dome’ or a digital ‘Iron Dome’ system to protect Israel’s cyberspace to defend against online attacks.
The Case for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure
Climate change is making weather harder to predict, and creating new risks in places that never faced them before. And as hurricanes, floods, extreme heat and wildfires intensify, most infrastructure will need to be retrofitted or designed and built anew for future climate resilience.
Nationwide Flood Models Poorly Reflect Risks to Households and Properties, Study Finds
Government agencies, insurance companies and disaster planners rely on national flood risk models from the private sector that aren’t reliable at smaller levels such as neighborhoods and individual properties.
Emerging Threats to the U.S. Financial System
In early 2021, a freewheeling, freethinking group of investors on Reddit plowed their money into GameStop, a video game retailer that several big hedge funds had bet against. The stock price shot up, some people made millions—and, to the delight of those on Reddit, the hedge funds had some very bad days. Researchers saw the GameStop story as a cautionary tale. If investors on Reddit could work together to move the markets like that, what could an adversary like China do?