In 2024, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded 393 natural hazard-related disasters. These events caused 16,753 fatalities and affected 167.2 million people. Economic losses totaled US$241.95 billion. The year 2024 was marked by extreme temperature events in Asia that caused thousands of deaths, severe droughts in Africa affecting over 25 …
A minor tsunami hit Japan's northeastern coastline today after a strong earthquake rocked the region nearly a year on from Japan's worst post-war natural disaster. The 10-centimetre wave and 6.8 magnitude quake, which struck some 210 kilometres off the northern island of Hokkaido, prompted local authorities to issue an evacuation …
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 hit east of Tokyo on Wednesday but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no initial reports of damage or troubles at area nuclear plants, the Japan Meteorological Agency and local media said. The earthquake, which caused substantial shaking in Ibaragi …
Eighty percent of the world's nuclear power plants are more than 20 years old, raising safety concerns, a draft U.N. report says a year after Japan's Fukushima disaster. Many operators have begun programs, or expressed their intention, to run reactors beyond their planned design lifetimes, said the International Atomic Energy …
The government today said there will be no compromise on nuclear safety or livelihood of any section of society in India's pursuit of atomic power, a statement that comes against the backdrop of anti-nuclear protests in Kudankulam and Jaitapur. Addressing a joint sitting of Parliament, President Pratibha Patil asserted that …
It is one year since the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake generated a tsunami that ripped apart the north-eastern sea-coast of Japan leaving over 20,000 people dead and the Fukushima nuclear power plant damaged. The triple disaster is estimated to have caused losses worth $235 billion according to World Bank. Pictures …
Regulators on Friday told the owners of the nation's nuclear reactors to implement new safety rules based on the lessons learned from the earthquake and tsunami that crippled Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant a year ago. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said it authorized its staff to issue three immediately …
The crisis that unfolded at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after Japan's megaquake and tsunami is rewriting the nuclear safety guide. There are some positives. Despite being shaken by an earthquake that exceeded the worst case assumed in their design, the reactors along Japan's Pacific coast suffered no serious damage …
Last year’s triple disaster—earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown—has shattered Japanese faith in many of the country’s institutions. ON MARCH 11th, the first anniversary of the day that turned her world upside down, 13-year-old Wakana Yokoyama will be performing a rice-planting dance for her fellow villagers. It will be a happy …
The terrifying meltdowns and hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in the days following 11 March 2011 made the importance of backup electricity generators painfully clear.
Long before the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, nuclear engineers were working on solutions to problems similar to those that contributed to the accident. Some of the improvements—from new high-tech materials to so-called passive safety systems—have been worked into the designs of the latest generation of reactors, regulators and safety experts …
The aftermath of the biggest earthquake in Japan's history, and the tsunami and nuclear disaster that followed, offers a map for preparing for the next catastrophe. (Editorial)
Japan's worst-ever nuclear accident displaced more than 100,000 people. Many could now safely return home. Yet mistrust of the government prolongs their exile.
Disasters led by the Japan earthquake cost the world a record figure of more than $380 billion last year, a UN official said Monday. While countries are managing to control the disaster death toll, economic costs are increasing more than ever before, said Margareta Wahlstrom, the UN special envoy on …
PURI: There is no tsunami threat to the Odisha coast. This was opined by Manmohan Mohanty, former Professor in Geology, Utkal University, at a workshop on ‘Beach Erosion in the State’ here on Thursday. The workshop comes days after some residents of Puri town had reported about buildings along the …
Denying charges of funding the anti-nuclear protests at Koodankulam, representatives of three of the four NGOs facing government action — Nagarcoil-based Rural Uplift Centre (RUC), Tuticorin Diocesan Association (TDA) of the Latin Catholic Diocese of Tuticorin, and the diocese’s social service wing, Tuticorin Multi-Purpose Social Service Society (TMSSS) — traced …
— In the darkest moments of last year’s nuclear accident, Japanese leaders did not know the actual extent of damage at the plant and secretly considered the possibility of evacuating Tokyo, even as they tried to play down the risks in public, an independent investigation into the accident disclosed on …
Researchers claim India is losing its forests more rapidly than Brazil and Malaysia. They question the findings of the latest State of the Forest Report 2011 which highlights that forest cover has increased by nearly five per cent between 1997 and 2007 and is presently covering nearly 24 per cent …
An international information system designed to improve and expand the exchange of data on weather, climate and water will help boost food security around the world, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The UN agency, which launched the system last month (31 January), said it would improve access to …
