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Advancing Hydropower Innovation for a Modern Electric Grid
Hydropower has long been a core resource for the U.S. electric grid. At Argonne, computer modeling and analysis are helping to shape the industry’s future by helping to optimize dam operations, integrate hydropower into modern energy systems, and mentor students.
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Power-Outage Exercises Strengthen the Resilience of U.S. Bases
In recent years, power outages caused by extreme weather or substation attacks have exposed the vulnerability of the electric grid. Now mandated by law, Lincoln Laboratory’s blackout drills are improving national security and ensuring mission readiness.
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New AI Flood Model Gives Water Managers Up-to-the-Minute Decision-Making Tool
The predictive model is capable of crunching real-time data to address dangerous situations, according to new research
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Elon Musk Pushed Back on Our Reporting on His Houston Tunnels Plan. Experts Say His Comments Are Misleading.
Elon Musk is taking issue with a recent investition by the Houston Chronicle and The Texas Newsroom that raised questions about a flood tunnel project he’s pitching to address Houston’s chronic flooding woes. But experts said his response, which he did not explain to the newsrooms, isn’t supported by facts or data.
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Protecting the Grid with Artificial Intelligence
The electric grid powers everything from traffic lights to pharmacy fridges, but it regularly faces threats from severe storms and advanced attackers. New neural network detects physical issues, cyberattacks.
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A Texas Congressman Is Quietly Helping Elon Musk Pitch a $760M Plan to Build Tunnels Under Houston to Ease Flooding
Experts in Houston have been studying the idea of building massive tunnels to divert floodwaters. Musk’s company wants a piece of the project.
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The Rising Threat to New York City’s Food System
The Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, the largest of its kind in the country, serves as the penultimate stop for 4.5 billion pounds of food that feed the city and surrounding areas each year. Losing access to that hub could be catastrophic for a city that produces almost none of its own food.
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Hurricane Katrina: 3 Painful Lessons for Emergency Management Are Increasingly Important 20 Years Later
Hurricane Katrina looms large in the history of American emergency management, both for what went wrong as the disaster unfolded and for the policy changes it triggered. As efforts to reform –and possibly rebalance –the U.S. emergency management system continue, it is essential to remember and heed the costly lessons of Hurricane Katrina.
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20 Years After Katrina, New Orleans’ Levees Are Sinking and Short on Money
The city’s $14 billion flood system faces new threats from climate change, land subsidence, and Trump budget cuts.
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States Fast-Track Wind, Solar Permits and Contracts to Beat Trump’s Deadline
Since taking office, the Trump administration has pursued a number of policies aimed at dismantling support for renewable energy, particularly targeting wind and solar power, which President Trump described as a “scam.” Federal tax credits have brought project costs down 30-50%, advocates say.
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HydroBoost: Increasing Hydropower Revenue with Realistic Forecasting
Optimizing the revenue and power storage capabilities of hydropower plants is challenging because water flow varies with seasons and weather conditions.To help hydropower operators,researchers developed HydroBoost, an optimization solver.
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Why Wind Farms Attract So Much Misinformation and Conspiracy Theory
Like 19th century fears that telephones would spread diseases, wind farm conspiracy theories reflect deeper anxieties about change. They combine distrust of government, nostalgia for the fossil fuel era, and a resistance to confronting the complexities of the modern world.
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Nuclear Waste Could Be a Source of Fuel in Future Reactors
In theory, nuclear fusion —a process that fuses atoms together, releasing heat to turn generators —could provide vast energy supplies with minimal emissions. But nuclear fusion is an expensive prospect because one of its main fuels is a rare version of hydrogen called tritium. Now, researchers are developing new systems to use nuclear waste to make tritium.
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Trump’s Bid to Support Coal Could Cost Ratepayers Billions: Report
The market has spoken: Across the country, coal plants have phased out as they’ve been unable to compete with cheaper renewables and natural gas. A recent report found that 99% of existing U.S. coal plants “are more expensive to run than replacement by local wind, solar, and energy storage resources.” Mandates from the Trump administration to subsidize aging, uncompetitive coal plants would cause taxpayers billions and lead to a massive spike in energy costs.
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Groundwater Is Drying Out, Heating Up, and Causing Sea Level Rise
Overuse has created zones of “mega-drying” around the world —and caused more sea level rise than Greenland’s ice sheet.
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The long view
Hacking the Grid: How Digital Sabotage Turns Infrastructure into a Weapon
The darkness that swept over the Venezuelan capital in the predawn hours of Jan. 3, 2026, signaled a profound shift in the nature of modern conflict: the convergence of physical and cyber warfare. The blackout was the result of a precise and invisible manipulation of the industrial control systems that manage the flow of electricity. This synchronization of traditional military action with advanced cyber warfare represents a new chapter in international conflict, one where lines of computer code that manipulate critical infrastructure are among the most potent weapons.
Entity Resolution: The Security Technology You Probably Haven’t Heard Of
The concept “entity resolution” (ER) is probably unfamiliar, but it underpins much of the world’s security—in telecommunications, banking and national security.
West Coast Levee Failures Show Growing Risks from America’s Aging Flood Defenses
Across the U.S., levees are getting older while weather is getting more extreme. Many of these structures were never designed for the enormous responsibility they now carry.
Mexico and U.S. Look for New Deal in Long-Running Battle Over 80-year Old Water Treaty
Mexico and the US’s growing dispute over water rights further complicates an already strained relationship that must tackle existing challenges related to drug trafficking, security, migration and trade wars. Water is just the latest issue to rise to the top of the tension table.