• U.K., U.S. in tighter collaboration on nuclear threats

    United Kingdom invests an initial £2 million to secure high-risk nuclear and other radioactive materials and combat their illegal trafficking

  • Uranium smugglers caught on India-Nepal border

    Indian police arrests six individuals trying to smuggle low-grade uranium from India to Nepal;

  • Number of U.S. nuclear smuggling experts to shrink

    There are between 35 to 50 experts in the United States specializing in identifying smuggled nuclear materials and nuclear bomb components; trouble is, about half of them are set to retire in the next fifteen years, and the pipeline of young researchers who could replace them are nearly empty; scientific organizations call for action

  • Analysis // by Ben Frankel: U.S. still fighting for sanctions on Iran, but with a weaker hand

    The Bush administration shot itself in the foot by releasing a confusing and partially misleading intelligence assessment of Iran’s nuclear weapon activities; the administration dealt a near-fatal blow to the effort to intensify economic sanctions on Iran, instead creating a situation in which the world will either have to accept a nuclear-armed Iran or go to war to stop it

  • Diminished strategic focus caused lax Air Force nuclear security

    Last year, six nuclear-tipped missiles were flown by mistake from North Dakota to Louisiana; it took more than thirty-six hours for the Air Force to discover the mistake, or even realize that nuclear missiles were missing

  • Ahura Scientific shows handheld FTIR chemical identification device

    First responders — but also those in charge of chemical clean-ups, quality control, product verification, raw material inspection, pharmaceutical manufacturing, food production, petrochemical processing, and composite analysis — would welcome this small, light chemical identifier

  • Defending cities against dirty bombs is difficult

    DHS efforts to develop technologies for detecting dirty bombs run into criticism of the feasibility of the technology and questions about the cost-benefit analysis used to justify the deployment of the systems

  • GuardTrax SFL used by security at Super Bowl

    GuardTrax SFL is a GPS tracking solution for foot patrol security personnel; remember those guards who were found asleep at Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania? GuardTrax SFL has a solution: A motion sensor will report if the device has had no motion for a predetermined amount of time

  • PSA issues Secure America Challenge to candidates

    Top Democrats and Republicans issue bipartisan agenda for next president; Senator Warren Rudman: “Republicans and Democrats can agree that securing global nuclear stockpiles to prevent terrorists from buying or stealing materials for a nuclear weapon is at the top of the agenda”

  • T-rays make possible new generation of sensors

    Simple metallic surfaces are already being used to control T-ray propagation before, but these only weakly guide the radiation, which extends as a weak field many centimetres above the surface of the material, making it less effective for sensing; U.K., Spanish researchers show that a metamaterial surface draws T-rays close to it, creating a very strong field less than a millimeter above the surface, thus enhancing the absorption by molecules on the surface and making highly effective sensing techniques possible

  • UDT signs China distribution agreement

    Universal Detection Technology, developer of bioterror and infectious diseases detection technologies, signs up a Chinese distributor with good connection with the central and provincial governments

  • New method for anthrax decontamination developed

    Yellow Jackets, SMD researchers develop an X-rays and UV-C light-based method for anthrax decontamination; it is rapid and nondisruptive, and also less expensive than currently available decontamination methods; it kills anthrax spores — even those hidden in crevices and cracks — within two to three hours without any lingering effects

  • CSX to give Maryland real-time information on hazardous cargo

    Baltimore no longer uses chlorine in their water treatment facilities, yet their citizens are exposed to the toxic substance as trains carrying the hazardous material to facilities elsewhere go through the city; Maryland, rail company reach an agreement on the issue

  • Israel begins radiation detection at Haifa Port

    More ports join the U.S.-led effort to check for radiological materials; the idea is to have U.S.-bound cargo containers scanned for radiation before they arrive in U.S. ports; the latest port to be added to the list is Haifa, Israel

  • Protein found in mouse urine offers powerful biosensor

    Proteins found in mouse urine could help create powerful biosensors for environmental monitoring and security applications; major mouse urinary proteins coated on a standard piezoelectric crystal enabled a one thousand-fold increase in sensor sensitivity compared with existing electronic sensing methods