Government Actuary’s Department actuaries have delivered probabilistic analysis to the Office of Rail and Road on how climate-related hazards such as extreme rainfall, heat and flooding are evolving across UK rail and strategic road assets. Using long‑term climate projections and hazard frequency–severity modelling, the work maps where risks to embankments, cuttings, track buckling and drainage exceedances are likely to increase. The outputs will feed into ORR’s scrutiny of Network Rail and National Highways’ asset management, resilience upgrades and future capital planning.

A new draft supplemental environmental impact statement from the US Army Corps of Engineers and BLM models a 27% tailings storage facility failure at NOVAGOLD’s proposed Donlin Gold mine in Alaska, warning a toxic wave could reach Crooked Creek village in 90 minutes, bury it in tailings and leave metal contamination in the Kuskokwim River basin for more than a century. The scenario, far larger than the previously assessed 0.5% spill, projects long-term erosion, groundwater mounding, altered stream channels and persistent reductions in fish abundance, with NGOs demanding analysis of a full dam failure. The 40-million-ounce, 2.22 g/t deposit is permitted for 1.1 million ounces per year over 27 years, but the SEIS outcome could modify, reaffirm or rescind the existing federal permit.

Asbestos management consultancy Acorn Analytical Services has appointed Ben James as commercial manager to lead its sales team and secure larger, more complex consultancy and removal projects. James, a former apprentice carpenter and joiner, moved into asbestos work in his early twenties after his grandfather died from asbestosis and has since progressed from trainee asbestos surveyor to contract manager over nine years. He will oversee new technical enquiries, key account management and site visits, and is qualified to deliver asbestos awareness, non-licensed removal and duty-to-manage training under a Level 3 teaching qualification.