• U Michigan students develop portable device to detect suicide bombers

    Wolverines engineering graduate students develop a small, light, cheap, and effective IED and suicide-bomber detector; the detectors are designed to be part of a wireless sensor network that conveys to a base station where suspicious objects are located and who might be carrying them

  • GAO unimpressed with new radiation detectors

    The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended further testing of next-generation radiation detectors; at more than $800,000 apiece, the new devices cost nearly 300 percent more than the machines in operation

  • NYC to receive $50 million for radiation detection

    The House approves the homeland security appropriation bill — with three Republican amendments; one of them, offered by Rep. Peter King of New York, added $50 million to restore funding for the Securing the Cities program, created to place radiological and nuclear sensors around New York City

  • Trust but verify, II

    British and Norwegian scientists ran the first field trials of a device that could solve the problem of reliable verification: a gamma ray detector linked to a hand-held “information barrier”

  • Philadelphia airport enjoys stimulus package funds

    DHS secretary Napolitano announces $26 million in stimulus package funding for screening technology at Philadelphia International Airport

  • Robotic ferret to secure cargo containers

    The U.S. maritime system consists of more than 300 seaports and more than 3,700 cargo and passenger terminals; more than 6 million cargo containers enter U.S. seaports annually; new robotic ferret will help detect radioactive materials, explosives, drugs, and illegal immigrants smuggled inside such containers

  • SF airport receives first installment of stimulus package money

    The stimulus package added $3 billion to the DHS budget; of that, about $1 billion will go toward bolstering airport security; San Francisco International receives first $15 million

  • New method for chemoterrorism developed

    Chemical terrorism does not receive as much press as bioterrorism; still, poisoning the air, water, and food supply using chemicals can do major harm and terrorize, intimidate, or coerce governments or civilian populations; scientists develop a new method to detect chemical attacks

  • Mystery surrounds detection of North Korea's nuclear test

    Detecting radionuclide evidence in the form of radioactive gas is the “smoking gun” — proving that a nuclear explosion has occurred; seismologists say they are comfortable that explosion in North Korea two weeks ago was a nuclear test — but sensors have not been able to pick up radionuclide evidence

  • U.K. white supremacists plotted to use ricin against minorities

    White supremacist cell in the U.K. plotted to use ricin to kill black people and other ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom; ricin is 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide

  • Iran increases number of centrifuges to 5,000

    Iran’s march toward the bomb accelerates; IAEA released a report on Friday saying that Iran has increased the efficiency of its production of low-enriched uranium, boosting its stockpile by 500 kg to 1,339 kg in the past six months

  • IAEA reports more undeclared uranium discovered in Syria

    On 7 September 2007 Israel destroyed a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor; the IAEA later found uranium particles at the remote desert site, contradicting Syrian claims that the destroyed site was a non-nuclear facility; on Friday, the IAEA reported that “anthropogenic natural uranium particles” were found in a facility in Damascus

  • Israel unhappy with IAEA

    Israel wants IAEA to condemn Syria over uranium findings; Israel also accuses the IAEA of not using all of the agency’s investigative tools to investigate Syria’s nuclear activities

  • Nuclear power may be considered for carbon credits

    Te 2001 Kyoto protocol excluded nuclear power from clean energy technology schemes; now, more and more countries appear to support the idea that developing countries should be given carbon credits if they build nuclear power stations; carbon credits could cut the capital cost of building new nuclear stations by up to 40 percent

  • GPO reveals confidential U.S. nuclear information by mistake

    A 2004 agreement between the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) requires the United States to submit to the agency a detailed list of the addresses and specifications of hundreds of U.S. nuclear-weapons-related facilities, laboratories, reactors, and research activities, including the location of fuel for bombs; the Department of Energy (DOE) prepared the report, and Government Printing Office (GPO) printed it so it could be submitted to the IAEA — but the GPO went ahead and, mistakenly, posted 268-page dossier on its Web site