• DHS seeks nuclear detection research

    DHS is looking to award $3 million this summer for nuclear detection technology exploratory research that could lead to a dramatic improvement in the U.S. nuclear detection capabilities

  • AS&E sells its first gantry security scanner to Pentagon

    AS&E’s proprietary Z Backscatter technology is popular with customers, and the company announces yet another contract, this time with the Pentagon — but: complaint from scanning rival Rapiscan lead the U.S. government to half an earlier order for AS&E’s ZBV Military Trailers, from 68 units to 34 units

  • New RFID technology tracks nuclear materials

    Argonne National Lab’s researchers develop RFID-based method to monitor the environmental and physical conditions of containers of nuclear materials in storage and transportation

  • Hi-G-Tek, Trojan Defense work on global nuclear threat early detection

    Hi-G-Tek and Trojan Defense collaborate on developing a global nuclear threat early detection and warning system; the wireless sensor is designed for rapid reporting of WMD in global shipments

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  • Handling nuclear materials for less

    During this century, nuclear plant decommissioning in the United Kingdom will likely produce thousands of waste packages that will be retrieved, conditioned, and stored for no less than £40 billion; BNS develops new way to reduce storage and handling costs of radioactive material

  • U.S. searching for a nuclear waste graveyard

    Congress has killed the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository project, so the United States has no central location for storing nuclear waste; 50,000 metric tons of toxic nuclear waste that has already been produced by the U.S. nuclear plants; 30,000 metric tons more of nuclear waste is expected to be generated in the coming decades

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  • BNS wins £13 million Dounreay decommissioning contract

    Dounreay was the site of a brave, new idea — a fast breeder nuclear reactor which would convert an unusable form of uranium to plutonium which could be recycled and turned into new reactor fuel; it would, that is, breed its own fuel, offering the prospect of electricity in abundance; it has not worked out that way; now it is the site of a big decommissioning effort

  • Obama's budget cuts off most funds for Yucca Mountain repository

    The future of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository appears grim; Obama campaigned against the project, which is already more the 10 years behind schdule; new scientific evidence showing that water flows through Yucca Mountain much faster than initially believed raises the prospect that the nuclear waste would leach over time

  • Researchers develop plutonium which is good for power but not for weapons

    Israeli researcher finds that adding the rare-earth isotope Americium-241 in due proportion during reprocessing “declaws” plutonium, making suitable for power generation but not for weapons

  • Hunting down dirty bomb materials

    A Los Alamos-based team in in the business of locating and recovering nuclear materials from hospitals, labs, oil fields, and factories so that these materials do not fall into the hands of terrorists; between 2,500 and 3,000 radiological sources are registered each year as unwanted; some officials estimate that there may be tens of thousands of other radioactive sources that the National Nuclear Security Agency has not identified

  • San Diego State builds radiation detection system

    New Immersive Visualization Center on the campus of San Diego State collaborates with the university’s Homeland Security Program to build, and then demonstrate, gamma radiation detection perimeter system

  • Historic sample of bomb-grade plutonium discovered

    Scientists stumble upon, then identify, the oldest batch of weapon-grade plutonium; methods used in identification can help in anti-proliferation efforts

  • IG: DoE cannot account for nuclear materials at several locations

    Department of Energy’s Inspector General finds that the department could not accurately account for the quantities and locations of nuclear material at 15 out of 40, or 37 percent, of facilities reviewed

  • Nuclear waste piling up at U.S. hospitals

    Federal, state, and local governments, as well as individual hospitals, have no long-term disposal plan in place for millions of radioactive devices

  • NNSA ships more high-risk nuclear material out of Livermore

    Latest shipment reduces high-security nuclear material onsite by an additional 20 percent; part of the government’s plan to consolidate nuclear materials at five sites by 2012, with significantly reduced square footage at those sites by 2017