-
New material can find a needle in a nuclear waste haystack
Nuclear power has advantages, but it also comes with a big problem: Nuclear waste; making nuclear power viable long term requires discovering new solutions to radioactive waste disposal and other problems
-
-
Colombia: Seized FARC documents show group's interest in dirty bomb
Colombian forces launched an incursion into Ecuador, killing a leading FARC figure and sixteen of his associates; Colombian government says seized documents show FARC’s interest in obtaining radioactive materials
-
-
Canberra shows Falcon 5000 portable radiation detector
The company has more than four decades of experience in radiation measurements of all kinds; the Falcon 5000, a portable radionuclide identifier for first responders, determines whether there is a radiation source present, the location of that source, and which isotopes are emitting the radiation
-
-
Study: U.S. needs better ways to evaluate radiation detection systems
Current radiation detectors placed at U.S. ports cost about $82,000 each and have a high false-alarm rate; DHS wants to buy 800 new detectors, at a cost of $360,000 each, but lawmakers and experts say that before this money is spent, there should be a better way to evaluate the effectiveness of the new systems
-
-
IAEA: More nuclear sleuths needed
Two U.S. scientific associations recently concluded that the number of U.S. nuclear smuggling experts is dwindling to a point at which U.S. national security would be affected; the IAEA says the same is true for the world as a whole
-
-
New U.K. nuclear plants to fund eventual decommissioning
New U.K. nuclear power station operators will be required to set aside money for their eventual decommissioning and waste costs
-
-
Scientists urge U.S. to stop using caesium-137, a dirty bomb ingredient
About 1,300 machines at U.S. hospitals and universities used for irradiating blood for transplant patients and other purposes contain caesium-137; individuals or groups eager to detonate a dirty bomb in a U.S. city could steal this caesium chloride and combine it with conventional explosives such as dynamite to produce a dirty bomb or radiological dispersal device
-
-
Uranium smugglers caught on India-Nepal border
Indian police arrests six individuals trying to smuggle low-grade uranium from India to Nepal;
-
-
U.K., U.S. in tighter collaboration on nuclear threats
United Kingdom invests an initial £2 million to secure high-risk nuclear and other radioactive materials and combat their illegal trafficking
-
-
Analysis // by Ben Frankel: U.S. still fighting for sanctions on Iran, but with a weaker hand
The Bush administration shot itself in the foot by releasing a confusing and partially misleading intelligence assessment of Iran’s nuclear weapon activities; the administration dealt a near-fatal blow to the effort to intensify economic sanctions on Iran, instead creating a situation in which the world will either have to accept a nuclear-armed Iran or go to war to stop it
-
-
Diminished strategic focus caused lax Air Force nuclear security
Last year, six nuclear-tipped missiles were flown by mistake from North Dakota to Louisiana; it took more than thirty-six hours for the Air Force to discover the mistake, or even realize that nuclear missiles were missing
-
-
Defending cities against dirty bombs is difficult
DHS efforts to develop technologies for detecting dirty bombs run into criticism of the feasibility of the technology and questions about the cost-benefit analysis used to justify the deployment of the systems
-
-
T-rays make possible new generation of sensors
Simple metallic surfaces are already being used to control T-ray propagation before, but these only weakly guide the radiation, which extends as a weak field many centimetres above the surface of the material, making it less effective for sensing; U.K., Spanish researchers show that a metamaterial surface draws T-rays close to it, creating a very strong field less than a millimeter above the surface, thus enhancing the absorption by molecules on the surface and making highly effective sensing techniques possible
-
-
PSA issues Secure America Challenge to candidates
Top Democrats and Republicans issue bipartisan agenda for next president; Senator Warren Rudman: “Republicans and Democrats can agree that securing global nuclear stockpiles to prevent terrorists from buying or stealing materials for a nuclear weapon is at the top of the agenda”
-
-
CSX to give Maryland real-time information on hazardous cargo
Baltimore no longer uses chlorine in their water treatment facilities, yet their citizens are exposed to the toxic substance as trains carrying the hazardous material to facilities elsewhere go through the city; Maryland, rail company reach an agreement on the issue
-