The U.S. Energy Department announced an overhaul of its program to retrieve weapons-grade uranium from foreign research reactors after an internal audit warned that much of the material was "out of U.S. control" and could be stolen by terrorists.
Scientists announced significant progress toward creating an artificial organism that one day may have uses ranging from pollution control to clean energy production. Scientists using commercially available DNA took only two weeks to build from scratch an artificial virus with the identical genetic code of a simple virus already known to infect and kill bacterial cells.
The U.S. may make more than 450 plutonium warhead triggers a year under a plan to resume production of the devices The Department of Energy announced plans a year ago for a pit manufacturing plant, saying new triggers are needed to maintain the safety, security, and reliability of the current and future US nuclear arsenal.
Increased anti-terrorism security at nuclear power plants, refineries and along thousands of miles of pipelines is likely to have long-range impact on the nation's energy systems, industry officials say.