Radiological threats

AS&E in $3.4 million deal for backscatter X-ray device
Backscatter X-ray technology gained a modicum of notoriety when it was used to scan passengers for concealed weapons at airports: The technology was so sensitive, that mpassengers appeared naked on the screens of security personnel at check points; the cargo-screening version of the technology is not controversial, and the company is selling it at a brisk pace
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Trend: Growing demand for nuclear radiation detectors •U.S. will spend more than $1 billion on new nuclear radiation detectors *•G8 launches new global nuclear tracking system
DHS has recently awarded contracts worth more than $1.1 billion for the development of new and improved devices to detect radioactive radiation; the department’s goal is not only to deploy the new machines in all the U.S. airports, seaports, and land border crossings – but also to deploy the new systems in and around major U.S. cities; in addition, the U.S. and Russia have launched an ambitious new initiative to track and monitor potential nuclear terrorists; that global initiative, too, will require new and improved technologies
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Report: Nuclear warheads could explode, release radiation while in transit
Nuclear warheads have to be inspected and refurbished regularly; to this, they are taken off the missiles and submarines where they are deployed and trucked to secure labs; the U.S. and British defense ministries insist that these warheads cannot explode as a result of accident to or terrorist attack on the convoys transporting them back and forth; a new U.K. Ministry of Defense study says this is not the case, and that a partial explosion (fizzle yield) and lethal release of radiation are possible during transit
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Missile market to grow to $100 billion by 2015; missiles for air defense to account for large share
Iran’s crash program to develop ballistic missiles, to say nothing of its relentless drive to build nuclear weapons, has rekindled an anxious interest in missile defenses; other aerial threats such as cruise missiles and UAVs only add to the drive for better and more sophisticated aerial defenses, offering opportunities for companies and investors
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Trend: Growing debate over safety of nuclear power plants
Worries about the rising price of oil and the degradation of the environment by fossil fuels have led to renewed interest in nuclear power plants; worries about terrorism, however, cut in the other
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Unease growing with Hutchison nuclear radiation detection deal
The Bush administration will start negotiating with the Bahamian government to allow U.S. custom agents to monitor nuclear radiation detection operations at Freeport conducted by Hong Kong company — or the deal may go the way of the DP World and Check Point-Sourcefire deals went
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GAO's investigators manage to smuggle nuclear materials into U.S.
GAO’s undercover agents managed to smuggle radioactive material into the U.S.; nuclear sniffers at the ports of entry discovered the material, but border guards were easily fooled by fake documents — and the lack of a centralized registry listing what people and companies are allowed to ship nuclear materials
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Just the facts
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HHS continues on controversial anti-radiation purchasing path, raising the ire of critics
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Raytheon to offer spectroscopic portal for homeland security applications
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