Category:

Risk Management

Tsunami-hit reactor in northeast Japan gets final approval to restart

Onagawa was the closest among Japan’s nuclear stations to the epicentre of the magnitude-9 quake in March 2011, which triggered a tsunami that killed nearly 20,000 people as well as causing the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

The station was swamped by the tsunami, but survived with its cooling system intact, saving its reactors from the threat of meltdowns similar to those that occurred at Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima Daiichi station to the south.

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Willis Towers Watson acquires Acclimatise, to strengthen climate resilience leadership

John Firth, CEO and Co-Founder of Acclimatise, said, “Climate change risk is fast becoming a central part of government, corporate and financial decision making and planning. Meeting growing client demand will require increasingly sophisticated approaches to climate risk assessment and management.”

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WeWork losses mount but ‘seismic shift’ in office use seen helping recovery

The pandemic has accelerated a “seismic shift” in the office sector that has put flexibility – an industry byword for the short-term leases the company embraces – and WeWork at the forefront, the memo signed by Chief Executive Sandeep Mathrani and Chief Financial Officer Ben Dunham said.

“This is our moment, and I know that together, we will continue to define the future of work,” they said.

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Olympic leaders raise hopes for safe Tokyo Games with fans

News from pharmaceutical firm Pfizer on Monday of promising trials of its vaccine followed Tokyo hosting an international gymnastics competition at the weekend.

Having seen now the different (event) tests in Japan I think we can become more and more confident that we will have a reasonable number of spectators then also in the Olympic venues, IOC President Thomas Bach said.

Asked if the IOC could itself try to acquire vaccine doses for Olympic participants, Bach said contact is ongoing with the World Health Organization and a number of the manufacturers. There are different options under consideration, how vaccines can be made available, he said.

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North Korean, Russian hackers target COVID-19 researchers: Microsoft

The software company said a Russian hacking group commonly nicknamed “Fancy Bear” – along with a pair of North Korean actors dubbed “Zinc” and “Cerium” by Microsoft – were implicated in recent attempts to break into the networks of seven pharmaceutical companies and vaccine researchers in Canada, France, India, South Korea, and the United States.

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Why Pfizer’s ultra-cold COVID-19 vaccine will not be at the local pharmacy any time soon

The main issue is that the vaccine, which is based on a novel technology that uses synthetic mRNA to activate the immune system against the virus, needs to be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius (-94 F) or below.

“The cold chain is going to be one of the most challenging aspects of delivery of this vaccination,” said Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

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