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TSA: Airport security lines moving faster
Better scanning technologies, clearer procedures at checkpoints have reduced wait times down to ten minutes
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Implant Sciences explosive detection tech attracts $1.2 million
Massachusetts-based Implant Science may have problems at home — the company received notice from the New York Stock Exchange of plans to delist the company’s stock from its Amex exchange owing to lack of compliance — but the company landed $1.2 million from a government agency in China for its explosive detection technology
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Reveal Imaging shows a new cabin baggage screening system
The company says it had identified a need for a superior screening technology to be put in place for cabin baggage
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GE offers airport detection system to the U.S. Army
The U.S. Army wants to use GE’s trace detection system; the device may be used for drug detection and explosive detection
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BPSI shows new mobile trailer CBRN detection unit
Mobile Sentry One is a trailer-mounted system that incorporates chemical and radiological (optional biological detection is available) sensor technology with proprietary firmware and software to detect and identify an airborne toxic attack within seconds
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Viz Lab, Defentech show perimeter security system
Defentect’s gamma radiation detection technology is used in a perimeter security system that can detect radiological materials
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National nuclear medicine shortage could have a Wisconsin solution
Scientists believe they can generate the neutrons necessary to create Mo-99, an essential nuclear medicine tool, without using a nuclear reactor to do so; there is almost no long-lived nuclear waste, no risk of an explosive accident, and it is about 20 times less expensive to produce than more traditional methods
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A Delaware chemical ID startup earns a state grant
AlphaSense is working on developing a prototype, which will look like a shoebox; the user will put a swab of the material into the box and the device will sense emissions in the terahertz range to identify the chemical compound
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Radiation safety
A new book — Radiation Safety: Protection and Management for Homeland Security and Emergency Response — helps first responders, EMS, and medical personnel understand how to detect and cope with nuclear incidents
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NRC seeks tighter oversight of often-lost radioactive devices
A 3 August proposal by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) would expand the agency’s oversight, giving federal and state officials more muscle by stiffening regulations on almost 2,000 items — mostly industrial gauges containing radioactive material; there are approximately 2 million radioactive devices in factories, hospitals, research facilities — and the GAO estimates that up to 500,000 of those devices are unaccounted for
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Millimeter-wave imaging comes to Cleveland, Houston airports
TSA expands its testing of millimeter wave and backscatter imaging systems, deploying them in Cleveland and Houston; TSA claims passengers’ privacy is guaranteed, but passengers can opt out of being screened and choose body pat instead
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Breakthrough: Radiation protection drug developed
American and Israeli researchers developed a drug which offers protection from radioactive radiation; the drug uses proteins produced in bacteria found in the intestines to protect cells against radiation; the FDA is expected to approve the drug within a year or two
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Hair examination can help in tracing terrorists
U.K. researchers devise a test which uses laser to determine the recent whereabouts of an individual by analyzing hair strands
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Scientists work on creating robot-insects
Researchers in the field of insect-machine hybrids believe the day is not far when police could release a swarm of robot-moths to sniff out a distant drug stash, and rescue robot-bees would dodge through earthquake rubble to find survivors
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Inkjet printer technology to be used in biosensors
Researchers describe a method for printing a toxin-detecting biosensor on paper using a FujiFilm Dimatix Materials Printer; the method relies on a “lateral flow” sensing approach similar to that used in a home pregnancy test strip
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The long view
What We’ve Learned from Survivors of the Atomic Bombs
Q&A with Dr. Preetha Rajaraman, New Vice Chair for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.