• Aussies to clone explosives sniffer dogs

    Two Aussie dog-breeding companies will collaborate with South Korean scientists on cloning explosives and drug sniffer dogs; the first batch of ten dogs will go into service in 2013; the Australians cloned dogs would be made from tissue samples taken from a German shepherd called Hassan von Gruntal, who died in 2001; cloned sniffer dogs have already been used in South Korea and the United States

  • Statistics helps calculate uncertainty of aging U.S. nukes

    How do you test a not-so-young nuclear stockpile for the effects of age when you cannot detonate any for the sake of finding out? The U.S. government has not conducted live nuclear tests since the early 1990s, but a BYU scientist offers solid answers — based on statistical analysis and without setting off any weapons

  • DNDO formally approves Smiths Detection’s RadSeeker

    Smiths Detection’s newly launched RdSeeker radiation detection has been formally approved by DHS Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) for production and deployment

  • 1st Detect receives U.S. patent for chemical detector

    A portable mass spectrometry detector, capable of detecting residues and vapors from explosives, chemical warfare agents, toxic chemicals, food and beverage contamination, illicit drugs and pollution, is awarded U.S. patent

  • New device identifies unknown liquids instantly

    Materials scientists and applied physicists have invented a new device that can instantly identify an unknown liquid; the 3D-nanostructured chip offers a litmus test for surface tension (and doubles as a carrier for secret messages); the researchers are currently developing more precisely calibrated chips and conducting field tests with government partners for applications in quality assurance and contaminant identification

  • DHS slow to crack down on ammonium nitrate sales

    U.S. lawmakers are becoming frustrated with DHS for its slow implementation of regulations on ammonium nitrate fertilizer, a key ingredient in dangerous homemade explosives like the one used in the deadly 1995 Oklahoma City bombing; Congress initially passed legislation tightening control on the sale of the fertilizer in 2008, but DHS has yet to implement such regulations and three years later is only now publishing a set of “proposed” rule

  • Portable detector can ID anthrax in one hour

    Researchers have developed a portable device can detect the presence of the anthrax bacterium in about one hour from a sample containing as few as forty microscopic spores; the basic design, which is small enough to fit in the overhead compartment of an airplane, potentially could be tailored to detect countless other pathogens, such as salmonella, or be used in the field for DNA forensics

  • U.S. General: troops unprepared for nuke risks in Japan

    A U.S. general admitted that U.S. troops stationed in Japan did not have the proper training or equipment to handle radiation exposure in the days immediately following the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant caused by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami

  • Blue ribbon commission calls for interim off site waste storage

    After deciding to stop the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project, President Obama appointed a blue Ribbon commission to examine alternatives; the first report from the commission calls for interim storage of nuclear waste not on the site of nuclear power plants, and for the creation of a new corporation to develop one or more deep geological repositories “as expeditiously as possible”

  • Troubled $1.2 billion nuclear detection program cancelled

    After news hit that DHS was planning on spending additional money to procure a troubled nuclear detection system that has been plagued with problems, the Obama administration decided to scrap the $1.2 billion program

  • New software to improve explosive detection

    New software developed by Peaklet Analysis with the aid of a Western Kentucky University (WKU) math professor could help existing explosives detectors improve their detection abilities

  • Bio detection firm raises $14 million in stock deal

    Last week PositiveID Corp.,a developer of biological threat detection technology and medical diagnostics, announced that it had signed a deal to raise almost $14 million in additional funding through the sale of its stock

  • Nano sensor detects minute traces of plastic explosives

    Scientists have developed an extremely sensitive explosives sensor that is capable of detecting even slight traces of the high-explosive chemical compound pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN); terrorists had employed PETN in several attacks on commercial aircraft

  • Full-body scanning for the shy

    The Transportation and Security Administration will soon launch Full Body Scanning 2.0 at several New York area airports; the new software, known as Automated Target Recognition (ATR), will auto-detect items that could pose a potential threat that passengers might be carrying under their clothes, but the suspicous items will be shown against a generic outline of a person for all passengers