President Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia announced a new global program to track potential nuclear terrorists, detect and lock up bomb-making materials and coordinate their responses if terrorists obtain a weapon, according to administration officials who have negotiated the deal.
The US is set to begin deploying a new generation of radiation detectors intended to be America's "last line of defense" against weapons of mass destruction.
Scientists work to turn mobile phones into a distributed network capable of measuring pollution levels -- and possibly detecting nuclear or biological weapons before they can be launched.
The federal government is stepping up efforts to stop terrorists from smuggling nuclear or radiological material into the USA, even as critics fault it for poor planning and outdated equipment.
Proliferation experts testified that not enough attention is being paid to developing better nuclear detection devices to defend against nuclear terrorism.
The International Monitoring System, an international network of seismographic sensors developed to verify compliance with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, has agreed to release seismographic data that could be useful for Tsunami detection and early warning. However, the data release is on an experimental basis because there is still disagreement among the participants in the IMS as to whether the IMS should be providing early warning data.
Good overview of the status of the International Monitoring System, a global network of sensors in 89 countries that watch for nuclear tests and other seismic anamolies.
Parties to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty are expected to begin discussing next week whether to expand the responsibilities and capabilities of the treaty?s monitoring organization to include global tsunami alerts.
Against the backdrop of the war on terrorism, an expanding group of government researchers is at work on a nationwide sensor network that someday could provide a real-time early-warning system for a wide array of chemical, biological and nuclear threats across the United States.
The U.S. customs service is employing new systems and tools for detecting chemical and biological materials that may be hiding in shipping containers.