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Unmanned helicopter to monitor the consequences of nuclear disasters
Engineering students at Virginia Tech designed a UAV for flying into American cities blasted by a nuclear weapon or dirty bomb; the unmanned helicopter’s main mission would be to assist military investigators enter an American city after a nuclear attack in order to detect radiation level
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Nuclear mattersObama administration to unveil nuclear weapons policy
The administration's Nuclear Posture Review was initially scheduled for release late last year, and then again for 1 March, but it is coming; it will lay out the administration's justifications and strategy for maintaining a nuclear arsenal, and will be important in guiding work throughout the energy department, including at the primary weapons laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California
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DHS budget has little money for radiation detector devices
Placing radiation detectors at U.S. ports of entry would help prevent the smuggling of nuclear material into the United States -- but it is also a business issue for Washington state: 400 employees work at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington; the proposed DHS budget contains only $8 million for these detectors, and the Washington congressional delegation presses for more
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Nuclear mattersDynasil's RMD receives $2.5 million from DHS to continue work on nuclear detection
RMD specializes in developing scintillator crystals, which convert radiation to visible light; DHS gives the company $2.5 million -- in addition to an earlier award of $5.6 million -- to continue work on the crystals, which will enable more accurate detection of radioactive materials
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GAO: Nuclear material could be smuggled undetected into U.S.
GAO investigators test for vulnerabilities along the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders; they examine both ports of entry and unmonitored areas of the border; GAO concluded that a determined cross-border violator would likely be able to bring radioactive materials or other contraband undetected into the United States by crossing the U.S.-Canada border
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Nuclear mattersObama 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
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Nuclear mattersHospital 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
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Nuclear mattersNew 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”
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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
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Nuclear mattersScientists 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
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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
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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
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Nuclear mattersPower 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
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Nuclear mattersNuclear 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
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Nuclear mattersPredicting 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
The Long View
Graham, Talent: U.S. should do more to prevent terrorist attack
The leaders of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism say that the incoming administration must do more, much more, to prevent a terrorist attack on the United States
Independent commission: WMD attack by terrorists likely
An independent commission of experts, set up by Congress as part of the recommendations by the 9/11 commission, concludes that terrorists will most likely carry out an attack with biological, nuclear, or other unconventional weapons somewhere in the world in the next five years
Nuclear mattersDebate over alternatives to Yucca Mountain project
The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project is being deliberately starved for funds by the Obama administration; some argue the United States should use UREX reprocessing technology to reprocess waste (this was the Bush administration's preference); MIT and Harvard scientists say it is perfectly safe to store nuclear waste above ground for 60 or 70 years, while working on a better alternative to UREX
