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TSA awards $52 million for piloting different detection technologies
On the TSA’s shopping list: Advanced technology (AT) X-ray, automated explosives detection (auto-EDS) for security checkpoints, bottled liquid scanners, passive millimeter wave, and a cast/prosthetics screening device
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Hot chillies mistaken for chemical attack in London
Venerable Thai restaurant prepares extra-hot bird’s eye chillies as part of a six-month batch of nam prik pao; acrid smoke from the kitchen spreads through the Soho neighborhood, causing people to flee and emergency units to be dispatched
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DARPA works on equipping insects with reconnaissance gear
DARPA hopes cyborg insects with embedded microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) will run remotely controlled reconnaissance missions for the military and law enforcement
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Liquid explosives detection technology is almost here
After the plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airlines with liquid explosives was uncovered in London in August 2006, pressure has grown to find new ways to detect liquids in baggage and on airline passengers and figure out what they are
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DHS awards $33 million for radiation detection demonstrations
DHS wants a tehcnology which will be able to detect radiation from a distance — and determine the direction, flux, energy, and isotope of the detected radiation; three companies win the Stand-Off Radiation Detector System (SORDS) demonstration contracts
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DHS funds nuclear training
One-third of the current U.S. nuclear workforce will reach retirement in the next ten years; DHS joins with NSF to foster the training of the next generation of nuclear workers
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UC Berkeley to examine new methods of screening for nuclear materials
The Academic Research Initiative, a new DHS-NSF project, give a UC Berekeley scientists $1.4 million to develop new methods for screening for nuclear materials
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Smiths, GE call off JV
Smiths and GE thought that bringing their considerable detection know-how and assets together in a JV would create a mighty player in homeland security; but Smiths’s detection unit has been doing very well on its own, so the rationale for a JV was no longer as compelling
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Bruker in Phase III of automatic, unattended chemical detector
DHS awards Bruker $1.3 follow-on Phase III contract for the Autonomous Rapid Facility Chemical Agent Monitor project
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South Carolina equips first responders with personal radiation detectors
South Carolina buys 300 GammaRAE II from RAE Systems; the portable detector provides prompt detection of gamma-ray sources
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RAE Systems refocuses, cuts costs
RAE Systems develops good chemical and radiation detectors for industry and homeland security; it tried its hand in the DVR market, and did not enjoy much success; now it is going back to what it is good at
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Pollution-sniffing flea-like robot unveiled
Italian researchers demonstrate the exploits of a mechanical, insect-look-alike robot, capable of sniffing out mercury and other pollutants
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GE Security shows dual-mode detection system
MobileTrace, developed with funding support from the Joint IED Defeat Organization, detects both explosives and narcotics
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DHS increases size of Nanomix grant
In January DHS awarded a grant to a specialist in nanoelectronic detection; the department liked the company’s progress, and increased the amount of the grant
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Sandia tests new approach to radiation detection
Sandia physicists have an idea: Scan freight containers for radiation not at the port, but at sea: “You’ve got days on the ocean, and you only get minutes in the port,” says one of them
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The long view
Keeping the Lights on with Nuclear Waste: Radiochemistry Transforms Nuclear Waste into Strategic Materials
How UNLV radiochemistry is pioneering the future of energy in the Southwest by salvaging strategic materials from nuclear dumps –and making it safe.
Model Predicts Long-Term Effects of Nuclear Waste on Underground Disposal Systems
The simulations matched results from an underground lab experiment in Switzerland, suggesting modeling could be used to validate the safety of nuclear disposal sites.