• U.S. officials warn of Al-Qaeda's nuclear ambitions

    DHS, DOE, and intelligence officials tell Congress al-Qaeda is continuing its pursuit of a nuclear weapon; monitoring the progress of the organization in reaching this goal is difficult: “We must find something that is tactical in size but strategic in impact,” says one official

  • The U.S. on course to deactivating all its chemical weapons

    On 25 November 1969 President Richard Nixon unilaterally renounced the first use of chemical weapons and renounced all methods of biological warfare; the United States has been deactivating chemical weapons ever since, and to date has destroyed about 45 percent of the chemical weapons it had produced; it is not likely, though, that the United States would achieve the complete destruction of its chemical weapons stockpile by 2012, as mandated by the Chemical Weapons Treaty

  • New nerve gas deactivation method offered

    What to do with thousands of tons of chemical weapon stored in rusting drums on military bases in the United States? Bleach reacts indiscriminately — even explosively — with many chemicals such as propellants, and using alkaline hydrolysis has its own drawbacks; researchers develop a deactivation method based on dealkylating agents

  • Orsus Situator to be deployed at water supplier facilities

    The new approach to critical infrastructure security is “holistic”: Planning, training, positioning information gathering equipment, imposing intelligence on video streams and other information coming in, presenting all information in accessible fashion, offering a menu of responses when an incident occurs; Orsus offers a situation management solution to critical infrastructure operators

  • Smiths Detection to supply chemical detectors to U.S. Army

    U.S. Department of Defense selects light-weight chemical detection device from Smiths Detection; new device benefits from the use of a nonradioactive technology compared with previous generations of detectors

  • Company profile: ICx Technologies

    ICx Technologies has been largely built through the far-sighted and strategic acquisition of seventeen companies and the formation of two others since it was founded in 2003; the successful management of this growth has positioned the company as a technology leader in the detection and surveillance fields; 2007 was the company’s most successful year ever

  • Understanding – and minimizing – today’s prevalent CBRNE threats // by Matthew Sweatt

    Today’s response structures are too narrow in focus; while being prepared for a small pox attack is great, what would happen if another bio-toxin were used? Most billion-dollar detection equipment today only looks for anthrax, allowing today’s emerging threats easily to penetrate most systems

  • Company profile: Radiation Watch

    Company’s products are versatile, offering performance over a wide dynamic range of measurement, from very low to very high values, in one instrument

  • Nuclear detectors in Washington state detect radioactive cat

    DHS has radiation monitors along Interstate 5 to make sure no radioactive material is being smuggled into the country; the monitors are so sensitive that they detected a sick cat in a car driving at 70 miles per hour (the cat was taken home after cancer radiation treatment at the vet)

  • Pencilbeam X-ray technology for more effective luggage inspection

    New luggage screening technology investigates suspicious material by penetrating the luggage with a pencilbeam X-ray; new approach reduces instances of false alarms

  • Company profile: Universal Detection Technology (UDT)

    UDT licenses spore detection technology from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and commercializes it; UDT developed a real-time continuous detection device capable of identifying abnormal levels of bacterial spores in the air, which is signature of a possible anthrax attack

  • CSC in $16 million contract to continue development of NEDSS

    The National Electronic Disease Surveillance System Base System (NEDSS) electronically links surveillance activities to improve the ability to track and identify emerging infectious diseases and potential bioterrorism attacks

  • With biological warfare, real-time detection is key

    The largest improvements in any biowarfare identification system’s performance will come in the form of smaller packages, more automated measurement, and faster measurement

  • ThruVision shows T5000 T-ray security imaging system

    T-rays operate in the terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum; T-ray-based detection system can see through clothing of still or moving individuals at a distance of up to twenty-five meters to reveal hidden objects

  • U.S. water supply contaminated by pharmaceuticals

    There are 302 million people in the United States, but over the past five years, the number of U.S. prescriptions rose 12 percent to a record 3.7 billion, while nonprescription drug purchases reached 3.3 billion; ingredients of these medications find their way to, and contaminate, the U.S. water supply; federal, state, and local governments do not regulate medical discharges into drinking water