• Source of radioactive poisoning in India found; nuclear watchdog seeks explanation

    Indian investigators find source of the cobalt-60 which poisoned several scrap-metal facility employees (one of them died last week): Delhi University bought a gamma irradiation machine from Canada in 1970 for use in experiments by chemistry students; the machine, which had not been used since the mid-1980s, was sold at an auction in February; scientists say that although the radioactive substance in the machine had decayed, it was of high intensity

  • How safe are the world's nuclear fuel stockpiles?

    There is a lot of weapon-grade nuclear material in the world — 1,600 tons of HEU and 500 tons of separated plutonium; keeping these stockpiles safe will take more than barbed wire; one method is a seal for HEU fuel rods with a pattern of flaws visible on ultrasound scans that cannot be removed without leaving telltale signs; the seals were installed last year in Romania and Pakistan; scientists work on other detection and safety methods

  • Weapon-grade fissile material in the world could yield 126,500 nuclear bombs

    The nations of the world together have in their possession about 1.6 million kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and about 500,000 kilograms of plutonium; it takes only about 25 kilograms of HEU or eight kilograms of plutonium to make a crude nuclear bomb; thus the weapon-grade material now available in the world could yield 64,000 HEU-based bombs and 62,500 plutonium-based bombs

  • Shortcomings in U.S. safeguards of weapon-grade nuclear materials

    Reviews ordered by President Obama have found weaknesses in the U.S. government’s stewardship of its nuclear cache, from weapons to the ingredients and classified information that go into them; before opening the nuclear summit earlier this week, Obama said that “Unfortunately, we have a situation in which there is a lot of loose nuclear material around the world”; this is true for the United States as well

  • Duke University team develops nuclear terrorism detection tool

    If terrorists detonate a nuclear bomb or a dirty bomb in a city, first responders rushing to the scene would have to sort out the thousands of victims exposed to the harmful effects of radiation to see who needs more immediate attention and who can wait; current tests for radiation poisoning take a number of days to complete, which is too slow; Duke University researchers develop a device which uses genomic technology to capture molecular snapshots of genes or patterns of genes that are “turned on” or “turned off” in the body’s response to radiation; this allows emergency crews to determine the severity of radiation poisoning in under 30 minutes

  • Uranium-mining nations ignore UN-mandated measures on nuclear terror

    In the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks and the 2004 uncovering of the Pakistan-based A. Q. Khan nuclear smuggling network, the United States pushed Resolution 1540 through the UN, which required states to impose strict security measures on nuclear materials and report on the progress they have made in this regard; many states have not bothered to report — almost all them in Africa; especially worrisome is the situation in Niger, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Malawi, and the Central African Republic

  • Thermo Fisher Scientific granted two U.S. patents for radiation detection instruments

    Thermo Scientific RadEye PRD will help border guards, customs agents, or counterterrorism teams detect radiation sources more effectively than conventional personal detectors

  • Unmanned helicopter to monitor the consequences of nuclear disasters

    Engineering students at Virginia Tech designed a UAV for flying into American cities blasted by a nuclear weapon or dirty bomb; the unmanned helicopter’s main mission would be to assist military investigators enter an American city after a nuclear attack in order to detect radiation level

  • Obama administration to unveil nuclear weapons policy

    The administration’s Nuclear Posture Review was initially scheduled for release late last year, and then again for 1 March, but it is coming; it will lay out the administration’s justifications and strategy for maintaining a nuclear arsenal, and will be important in guiding work throughout the energy department, including at the primary weapons laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California

  • DHS budget has little money for radiation detector devices

    Placing radiation detectors at U.S. ports of entry would help prevent the smuggling of nuclear material into the United States — but it is also a business issue for Washington state: 400 employees work at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington; the proposed DHS budget contains only $8 million for these detectors, and the Washington congressional delegation presses for more

  • Dynasil's RMD receives $2.5 million from DHS to continue work on nuclear detection

    RMD specializes in developing scintillator crystals, which convert radiation to visible light; DHS gives the company $2.5 million — in addition to an earlier award of $5.6 million — to continue work on the crystals, which will enable more accurate detection of radioactive materials

  • GAO: Nuclear material could be smuggled undetected into U.S.

    GAO investigators test for vulnerabilities along the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders; they examine both ports of entry and unmonitored areas of the border; GAO concluded that a determined cross-border violator would likely be able to bring radioactive materials or other contraband undetected into the United States by crossing the U.S.-Canada border

  • Obama signals shift to re-use of spent nuclear fuel

    The Obama administration is making two big moves on the nuclear power front: in order to boost the U.S. nuclear power industry, the administration will include $54 billion of loan guarantees in the 2011 budget request to Congress, up from $18.5 billion; the administration will also reverse a 50-year U.S. ban on reprocessing nuclear waste: fearing the creation of more weapon-grade fissile material, the United States, since the late 1950s, has opposed the reprocessing of nuclear waste, preferring to find a permanent burial site for the waste instead; the administration has pulled the plug on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project, indicating it would reconsider the issue of reprocessing the waste

  • Hospital scanner could curb nuclear waste threat

    Medical gamma-ray cameras were used for the first time to track radioactive isotopes in soil samples from a U.S. civil nuclear site; the technique, which is used in hospitals for heart, bone, and kidney scanning, is now being used to study the environmental behavior of nuclear waste — and its success could help scientists find new ways of using bacteria to control the spread of radioactivity

  • New blue ribbon commission on America’s nuclear future

    The commission, led by Lee Hamilton and Brent Scowcroft, will provide recommendations on managing used fuel and nuclear waste; Secretary of Energy Steven Chu: “Nuclear energy provides clean, safe, reliable power and has an important role to play as we build a low-carbon future. The Administration is committed to promoting nuclear power in the United States and developing a safe, long-term solution for the management of used nuclear fuel and nuclear waste”