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Lobbyists resist homeland security measures recommended by 9/11 Commission
Farmers fight off ammonium nitrate controls; television station opposes handing over frequency for emergency services; retailers stick to their guns on radiological screening of containers
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Carbon nanotubes may reduce reliance on nuclear materials
The most pressing nuclear risk is the one involving a dirty bomb: Nuclear materials are used for routine operations by tens of thousands of commercial establishments, requiring a vast system of shipment, handling, and storage; many of these facilities, and practically all of the shipping procedure, are but loosely guarded, if that, offering easy targets for terrorists intent on obtaining the material; would that we had a technology which would reduce our reliance on nuclear materials; Applied Nanotech believes it has such a technology
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Doctors group assails DHS radiological planning
Physicians for Social Responsibilty says DHS has no plan to evacuate communities downwind from a dirty nuke attack; field emergency plans inadequate; DHS says report “lacks a grasp of reality”
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Parsons, along with eleven other companies, receives nuclear waste advanced remediation technology contract
Company will further develop its Continuous Sludge Leaching and New Tank Cesium Removal technologies; total value of six-month contracts is $3.3 million
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London arrests should prompt interest in fluoroscopic detection system
In tests conducted in spring 2004, TSA found that, compared with X-ray machine systems, screeners using the fluoroscopic system from Golan Group were more likely to detect IEDs — especially those “artfully concealed”; it is time to consider to act on the study’s conclusions
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The consequences of one nuclear bomb smuggled into a port in a container
A RAND study says that a 10-kiloton nuclear explosion at the Port of Long Beach could kill 60,000 people instantly, expose 150,000 more to hazardous radiation, and cause ten times more economic loss than the 9/11 terrorist attacks
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TVI announces selection as decontamination system provider for DoD
The contract under the Defense Guardian Installation Protection Program is worth $490,000; company will deploy proprietary fabric shelter structures
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Sandia Labs readies its Rapidly Deployable Chemical Detection System
In a series of tests this summer, Sandia deployed its “detect to warn” system at McAfee Stadium in Oakland. A further test at the Nevada Test Site in August, where it will contend with an authentic chemical discharge, will determine when it will be delivered to DHS.
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Parsons, SRS help DNDO’s ASP project
Though legislators question the effectiveness of DNDO, companies still line up to offer services to the organization; Parsons and SRS to work on detection systems under $1.157 billion contract
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AS&E in $3.4 million deal for backscatter X-ray device
Backscatter X-ray technology gained a modicum of notoriety when it was used to scan passengers for concealed weapons at airports: The technology was so sensitive, that mpassengers appeared naked on the screens of security personnel at check points; the cargo-screening version of the technology is not controversial, and the company is selling it at a brisk pace
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Trend: Growing demand for nuclear radiation detectors •U.S. will spend more than $1 billion on new nuclear radiation detectors *•G8 launches new global nuclear tracking system
DHS has recently awarded contracts worth more than $1.1 billion for the development of new and improved devices to detect radioactive radiation; the department’s goal is not only to deploy the new machines in all the U.S. airports, seaports, and land border crossings – but also to deploy the new systems in and around major U.S. cities; in addition, the U.S. and Russia have launched an ambitious new initiative to track and monitor potential nuclear terrorists; that global initiative, too, will require new and improved technologies
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Report: Nuclear warheads could explode, release radiation while in transit
Nuclear warheads have to be inspected and refurbished regularly; to this, they are taken off the missiles and submarines where they are deployed and trucked to secure labs; the U.S. and British defense ministries insist that these warheads cannot explode as a result of accident to or terrorist attack on the convoys transporting them back and forth; a new U.K. Ministry of Defense study says this is not the case, and that a partial explosion (fizzle yield) and lethal release of radiation are possible during transit
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Missile market to grow to $100 billion by 2015; missiles for air defense to account for large share
Iran’s crash program to develop ballistic missiles, to say nothing of its relentless drive to build nuclear weapons, has rekindled an anxious interest in missile defenses; other aerial threats such as cruise missiles and UAVs only add to the drive for better and more sophisticated aerial defenses, offering opportunities for companies and investors
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Trend: Growing debate over safety of nuclear power plants
Worries about the rising price of oil and the degradation of the environment by fossil fuels have led to renewed interest in nuclear power plants; worries about terrorism, however, cut in the other
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Unease growing with Hutchison nuclear radiation detection deal
The Bush administration will start negotiating with the Bahamian government to allow U.S. custom agents to monitor nuclear radiation detection operations at Freeport conducted by Hong Kong company — or the deal may go the way of the DP World and Check Point-Sourcefire deals went
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