• Obama signals shift to re-use of spent nuclear fuel

    The Obama administration is making two big moves on the nuclear power front: in order to boost the U.S. nuclear power industry, the administration will include $54 billion of loan guarantees in the 2011 budget request to Congress, up from $18.5 billion; the administration will also reverse a 50-year U.S. ban on reprocessing nuclear waste: fearing the creation of more weapon-grade fissile material, the United States, since the late 1950s, has opposed the reprocessing of nuclear waste, preferring to find a permanent burial site for the waste instead; the administration has pulled the plug on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project, indicating it would reconsider the issue of reprocessing the waste

  • Hospital scanner could curb nuclear waste threat

    Medical gamma-ray cameras were used for the first time to track radioactive isotopes in soil samples from a U.S. civil nuclear site; the technique, which is used in hospitals for heart, bone, and kidney scanning, is now being used to study the environmental behavior of nuclear waste — and its success could help scientists find new ways of using bacteria to control the spread of radioactivity

  • New blue ribbon commission on America’s nuclear future

    The commission, led by Lee Hamilton and Brent Scowcroft, will provide recommendations on managing used fuel and nuclear waste; Secretary of Energy Steven Chu: “Nuclear energy provides clean, safe, reliable power and has an important role to play as we build a low-carbon future. The Administration is committed to promoting nuclear power in the United States and developing a safe, long-term solution for the management of used nuclear fuel and nuclear waste”

  • Decision Sciences, Battelle to develop passive nuclear material detector

    The companies will rely on work done by Decision Sciences and Los Alamos National Laboratory on muon tomography and gamma ray detection applications; the collaborative effort will yield a multi-mode system capable of detecting nuclear materials across the complete threat spectrum, including shielded and unshielded nuclear materials

  • Scientists cautiously optimistic as Doomsday clock reset

    The minute hand of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday clock was moved back one minute – to seven minutes to midnight – to indicate a slight improvement in the world’s nuclear weapons situation; midnight on the clock signifies the apocalypse, and the minute hand symbolizes the countdown to disaster

  • Woman dodges prison time for killing dirty-bomb plotter husband

    A Maine woman is given suspended sentence for killing her white supremacist husband after he began to plan a dirty-bomb attack on President Obama; husband was also obsessed with child pornography, and the wife was afraid he would abuse their 9-year old daughter

  • Romania receives radiation detectors

    The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration provided Romania with radiation detectors for Romanian border crossing; shipment is part of the agency’s Second Line of Defense Program provides foreign nations with radiation monitoring devices and equipment training

  • Power glitch, natural radon caused TMI alarm

    Naturally occurring radon and a power glitch caused radiation monitors to sound false alarms at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant; still, more than five hours passed before state officials were made aware of the incident; the incident severity, however, did not approach the level that would have required Exelon, under federal rules, to notify state emergency officials within fifteen minutes

  • Nuclear leaks at Three Mile Island investigated

    There was another radioactive leak at Three Mile Island, the scene of the U.S. worst nuclear power accident; NRC said on Sunday there was no threat to public health or safety; investigators this weekend were trying to determine the cause of radiological contamination inside the nuclear facility’s containment building

  • Predicting the effect of a nuclear weapon dropped on an urban area

    Current models of nuclear effects use wind direction and wind speed to draw a predicted cone-shape area of fall-out; new research results show that these models are too simple in some ways — for instance, they do not include the complex dynamics of wind movements around buildings, which can concentrate fall-out preferentially in certain areas

  • Pakistan installs radiology scanner in Islamabad

    There are more than 160 points of entry into Islamabad but four main entry points for goods carrying vehicles; the Pakistani government buys radiation detectors from China to prevent terrorists from smuggling a nuclear or dirty bomb into the city; worries about the health effects of the strong radiation the scanner emit

  • TSA agents monitor U.S. ground transportation for nuclear, biological threats

    DHS, the FBI, and TSA quietly monitor the U.S. ground transportation system for nuclear and biological weapons; TSA agents carry portable detection sensors fan out aboard trains and buses and at transit hubs

  • DHS misses deadline for certifying new radiation detectors

    Back in June, the head of DHS’s nuclear monitoring division said the agency would sign off this fall on two congressionally mandated certifications for the Advanced Spectroscopic Portal monitor system; the testing and evaluation of these innovative nuclear detection systems have not yet been completed, though; the new machines are designed to not only detect radiation but identify the nature of its source, thus eliminating time-consuming secondary inspections to determine whether a material is dangerous

  • Radiological monitoring system along U.S.-Canada border completed

    The last of the 600 radiological monitors along the U.S.-Canada border has been deployed (at Trout River, New York, on the Quebec border); DHS says it is now scanning 100 percent of all vehicle traffic entering from Canada and Mexico — plus all mail and courier packages from Mexico and a further 98 percent of all arriving seaborne container cargo — for radioactive threats

  • Los Alamos lab's toxic waste seeps toward New Mexico's water sources

    Radioactive debris has been found in canyons that drain into the Rio Grande, but officials at the Los Alamos National Laboratory say there is no health risk; to comply with New Mexico’s clean up orders, the lab has installed about 300 monitoring wells and gauges, contaminated soil is being removed from canyon bottoms, wetlands are being planted, and small dams built to arrest the flow of polluted storm water