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 …
Japan's government vowed Tuesday to overhaul nuclear safety standards once its radiation-leaking reactor complex is under control, admitting that its safeguards were insufficient to protect the plant against the March 11 tsunami. The struggle to contain radiation at the complex has unfolded with near-constant missteps, including two workers drenched Tuesday …
The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has set up a 10-member committee to examine if our 20 nuclear plants can withstand earthquakes and other external events such as tsunamis, cyclones, floods, etc. That includes checking if the arrangements are adequate to ensure safety in case of such events, both within …
This report analyzes how the humanitarian community and the emerging volunteer and technical communities worked together in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and recommends ways to improve coordination between these two groups in future emergencies.
On March 11th, Japan was hit by one of the biggest natural cataclysms ever observed – a magnitude 9 earthquake on the Richter scale and a tsunami with a wave more than 10 meters high. The tsunami has resulted in a serious nuclear accident in the Fukushima power plant operated …
Japanese workers scrambled hard today to restore power at the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant as smoke rose from two of its reactors in the tsunami-hit northeast, which was jolted by a series of new powerful quakes, including two measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale. Authorities sought the help of the …
LUCKNOW: The aftershocks of tsunami in Japan have reached Uttar Pradesh. The National Ganga River Basin Authority's (NGRBA) ambitious plan to cleanse one of the most polluted stretch of river Ganga in Varanasi is facing the prospects of a forced closure. Funded by the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA), the …
The quake that rocked Japan on March 11, triggering tsunamis from its north-eastern coast near Sendai, brought with it over a hundred after-shocks, among them the fear of an impending recurrence in Tokyo or elsewhere. The magnitude-9 quake, the largest one to ever hit Japan, occurred at the interface between …
Japan has faced adversity before. But even amid radiation and rubble, the nation's not hopeless, says William Pesek AT HIS FIRST press conference, Prime Minister Naoto Kan called it a crisis, and for an hour or so that felt right. Then the videos began
As part of strengthening the preparedness for tackling tsunami-like disasters in coastal areas and islands, the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) on Thursday decided to include industry, thermal power, infrastructure and nuclear power in terms of reference for the environment impact assessment (EIA) for future projects. The MoEF has …
The Prime Minister's Office has given state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India two weeks to submit a report on measures needed to ensure safety of all existing and proposed nuclear projects, a government official said. NPCIL, the sole authority for atomic power generation in the country, has formed four committees …
The Environment Ministry is considering the idea of developing bioshields comprising mangrove and non-mangrove species in coastal areas adjoining critical infrastructure projects such as power plants and oil storage depots. The idea of promoting mangroves and other biological shields to provide a
In the wake of the massive tsunami devastating Japan, the Environment Ministry is mulling to make its norms more stringent by giving approval to only those new or expansion projects, particularly in coastal areas, which promise sufficient safeguards during such disasters. The Ministry has asked its four Expert Appraisal Committees …
The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, an arm of the United Nations in Vienna, forecast the possible movement of the radioactive plume coming from crippled Japanese reactors. It shows the plumes churning across the Pacific, and touching the Aleutian Islands on Thursday before hitting Southern California late Friday. The projection …
A comprehensive package by Down to Earth on the recent Japan nuclear crisis and its implications for India consists of blogs, timeline, maps and other useful resources. It also provides a selection of DTE articles from 19 years of its reportage on nuclear energy, quakes & tsunami alongwith important reports, …
Bangalore: The Kaiga nuclear plant consisting of four reactors comes under seismic zone three which ordinarily means a moderate damage risk zone. There are five seismic zones in India and zone five is the one with severest risk and high damage risk zone. Zone four is also classified as high …
