Radiological threats

Colombia: Seized FARC documents show group's interest in dirty bomb
Colombian forces launched an incursion into Ecuador, killing a leading FARC figure and sixteen of his associates; Colombian government says seized documents show FARC’s interest in obtaining radioactive materials
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New material can find a needle in a nuclear waste haystack
Nuclear power has advantages, but it also comes with a big problem: Nuclear waste; making nuclear power viable long term requires discovering new solutions to radioactive waste disposal and other problems
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Canberra shows Falcon 5000 portable radiation detector
The company has more than four decades of experience in radiation measurements of all kinds; the Falcon 5000, a portable radionuclide identifier for first responders, determines whether there is a radiation source present, the location of that source, and which isotopes are emitting the radiation
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Study: U.S. needs better ways to evaluate radiation detection systems
Current radiation detectors placed at U.S. ports cost about $82,000 each and have a high false-alarm rate; DHS wants to buy 800 new detectors, at a cost of $360,000 each, but lawmakers and experts say that before this money is spent, there should be a better way to evaluate the effectiveness of the new systems
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IAEA: More nuclear sleuths needed
Two U.S. scientific associations recently concluded that the number of U.S. nuclear smuggling experts is dwindling to a point at which U.S. national security would be affected; the IAEA says the same is true for the world as a whole
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New U.K. nuclear plants to fund eventual decommissioning
New U.K. nuclear power station operators will be required to set aside money for their eventual decommissioning and waste costs
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Scientists urge U.S. to stop using caesium-137, a dirty bomb ingredient
About 1,300 machines at U.S. hospitals and universities used for irradiating blood for transplant patients and other purposes contain caesium-137; individuals or groups eager to detonate a dirty bomb in a U.S. city could steal this caesium chloride and combine it with conventional explosives such as dynamite to produce a dirty bomb or radiological dispersal device
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Uranium smugglers caught on India-Nepal border
Indian police arrests six individuals trying to smuggle low-grade uranium from India to Nepal;
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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”
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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
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