• 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

  • Congress offers relief to Washington State cherries growers

    Congressional mandate, going into effect last Monday, requiring 100 percent screening of cargo on passenger planes, threated Washington State cherries grower; Congress offers growers relief

  • House limits whole body imaging

    Worries about privacy lead Congress to vote, 310-118, to ban whole body imaging at airports; the bill would ban TSA from using whole-body imaging instead of metal detectors as the first-screening device at airports

  • Sweden selects location for central nuclear waste repository

    The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project now appears doomed, but in Sweden a location has been selected for that country’s central nuclear waste disposal site

  • Dutch researchers develop new virus detector

    A prototype of a new system can detect within minutes if an individual is infected with a virus; the system carry out measurements many times faster than standard techniques, and it is also portable