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EU votes down millimeter wave scanners
Millimeter wave scanners offer a new level of security at airport checkpoints, but they also offer anatomically correct images of people’s private parts; EU votes against using them
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Expert: Fear of nuclear terrorism may be overblown
A RAND expert says the fear of al Qaeda obtaining a nuclear weapon has already allowed the organization to inflict nuclear terror, even though it is not entirely clear that the terrorists can get their hands or use such a weapon
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Innovative shoe scanner to make travel safer, lines shorter
University of Manchester researcher develops a technology which allows security personnel to spot people with concealed items in their shoes as they walk through passport control or through traditional security checks
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DHS to use TeraView's terahertz technology in chemical detection
Goodrich chose U.K. terahertz technology specialist TeraView for developing a DHS-sponsored chemical detection system for government and public buildings, and on the battlefield
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TSA meets initial screening cargo goal
Congress has mandated through the 9/11 law that 50 percent of cargo on passenger carrying aircraft be screened by February 2009 and 100 percent of cargo be screened by August 2010; TSA says it currently screens all cargo on narrow body, passenger-carrying aircraft; these account for more than 90 percent of all passenger carrying aircraft in the United States
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GE shows a chemical sensor that does not need batteries
Researchers develop a chemical sensor that can detect minute quantities of chemicals in the air or water; it has no batters: it receives its power wirelessly from a sensor reader
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Briefly noted
Iraqi military looks at unmanned air force… Iraqi brass confirm interest in F-16s, armed Helos… Lockheed Martin establishes Center for Cyber Security Innovation… Nuke detection is latest fallout from Georgia war
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Battery-free, multi-detection wireless sensors
Home food and beverage safety monitoring, remote water purity testing, more effective chemical and biological sensors are all potential applications
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SAIC to develop artificial nose
DARPA awards SAIC a contract under the RealNose program; the project aims to create a device which emulates dogs’ olfactory system
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TSA to deploy remote detection machines at airports
Terrorists may not only blow up a plane, but also explode a bomb in an airport lounge or near a crowded ticket counter; TSA tests machines that can detect explosives at a distance
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Briefly noted
The financial crisis and homeland security… Airport security: shoe salvation has arrived… UNDT to market anthrax detection equipment in Israel… Canada’s new emergency management and business continuity standard
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DHS, NSF announce $3.1 million awards for radiological detection
DHS and NSF give awards to academic institutions to advance research in radiological and nuclear detection
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Breakthrough: Radioactive waste may no longer be dangerous to store
Aussie researchers have created a material which has the potential to filter and safely lock away radioactive ions from waste water; nanofibers which are millionths of a millimeter in size could permanently lock away radioactive cations by displacing the existing sodium ions in the fiber
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DSRL in £13 million Dounreay decommissioning contract
Britain’s Dounreay fast reactor was proclaimed as “the system of the next century”; this was in the 1960s; the last 15 years have seen the site develop into a nuclear reactor decommissioning project
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Russia to build IAEA-supervised nuclear fuel bank
The nuclear fueled bank would allow countries, including Iran, to develop civilian nuclear power without having to enrich their own uranium, thus allaying fears over nuclear weapons proliferation
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The long view
What We’ve Learned from Survivors of the Atomic Bombs
Q&A with Dr. Preetha Rajaraman, New Vice Chair for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.