• CN expands rail holding, banking on increasing northern oil production

    As the price of oil increases, the attractiveness of extracting oil from oil sands in Canada’s northern regions increases apace; CN acquires yet more rail to ensure rail links to Alberta’s oil sands region

  • Weapon-grade plutonium shipped cross-country

    The Department of Energy plans to scale down U.S. nuclear weapons program by consolidating special nuclear materials — read: weapon-grade material — at five federal sites by the end of 2012 and reducing the square footage and staff within those sites by 2017; nuclear materials will have to be shipped from different labs around the country to these five sites

  • DOE IG offers details of 24 October Oak Ridge security breach

    Certain areas of the U.S. nuclear labs are designated “limited areas” by DOE; employees are prohibited from bringing into these secure areas any equipment capable of transmitting data wirelessly; at Oak Ridge, 38 laptops had been allowed into restricted areas, and IG finds that nine of these laptops had later been taken on foreign travel — two of them to countries on DOE’ sensitive countries list

  • Storage offers investors intriguing opportunities

    More and more surveillance cameras are placed around critical infrastructure facilities, above city streets, and long highways; these cameras generate mountains of visual material — and there is a need to store all this material; storage solutions will be a major business in the coming years

  • U.K. nuclear power plan draws fire

    A group of academics issue a report arguing that the established nuclear-power industry would inevitably move on to the use of fast-breeder reactors to manufacture plutonium for use as fuel, increasing the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation

  • VT Group acquires British Nuclear Group Project Services

    As interest in nuclear power revives, nuclear-power related services enjoy another look from investors and businesses

  • Investigation begins into causes of deadly Florida explosion

    Jacksonville, Florida massive explosion and fire at the T2 Laboratories facility kill 4 and injure 14; rescue teams describe scene as “hellish inferno”

  • Quantum communication over long distance, flawed networks possible

    Chinese scientists offer possible breakthrough in quantum communication — overcoming the problem of quantum entanglement between photons at long distances; the scientists show a quantum-communications network in which producing entanglement over a long distance is conceptually possible

  • L.A. reservoirs emptied after high levels of contamination discovered

    Two of Los Angeles’s beloved landmarks — Silver Lake and Elysian Park — are emptied after tests revealed bromate, a disinfectant byproduct that can form when treated water reacts with naturally occurring mineral bromide in sunlight

  • FERC seeks industry cyber-security plans

    Earlier this year, government scientists hacked into a simulated power-plant control system and caused an electric generator to destroy itself; as worries about the vulnerability of the U.S. power grid to cyber attacks grow, regulators demand that utilities submit detailed reports about their progress in addressing potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities

  • EVT shows enhanced video management tool

    What with CCTVs being installed by the thousands on street corners, along perimeter fences, and as part of border protection, there is a need to effectively and efficiently manage the avalanche of visual information coming in to the command center; this is where EVT’s new tool comes in

  • Critical infrastructure employees to receive vaccine in influenza pandemic

    HHS, CDC, and other government agencies conduct three-day public discussion on how to prioritize allocation of vaccine during an influenza pandemic; majority of discussants emphasize need to distribute vaccines first to employees in critical infrastructure

  • Early warning system for earthquakes

    Shake, rattle, and respond: By analyzing earthquakes when and where they strike, a computerized system could save lives

  • Georgia to consolidate IT infrastructure

    The State of Georgia spends $617 million a year on IT; governor wants to consolidate IT spending, eliminating 1,100 jobs in the process

  • Fiber optics no obstacle to cyber crime

    Fiber optics are an ideal transmission medium, and the length of cable installed around the globe is estimated at more than 300 million kilometers; fiber optic networks are employed by many banks, insurance companies, enterprises, and public authorities as their communication backbone, supporting critical business activities; fiber optic cables are as vulnerable to hacking as traditional copper wires