California Working with NNSA on Dirty Bomb Protection
The state of California is participating in a National Nuclear Security Administration program to reduce the possibility of medical isotopes becoming ammunition for dirty bombs, the semi-autonomous Department of Energy agency says. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Cesium Irradiator Replacement Program helps academic and medical institutions replace devices that use radiological materials, such as cesium-137, with devices that use X-ray technology instead. NNSA says California was working with the program. In October, NNSA announced New York City was participating. The Cesium Irradiator Replacement Project is nested in NNSA’s Office of Radiological Security, which helps institutions pay for new medical and research equipment and dispose of old, radiation-based equipment. So-called dirty bombs, which are relatively low-tech, could use conventional explosives to spread radioactive material over a large area.
DHS S&T Licenses Infrastructure Security Technology
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate has commercialized the SerialTap industrial control systems cyber security solution to IP Group, an intellectual property commercialization company that provides insight, capital and supporting infrastructure to technologies from universities and laboratories. IP Group transferred the technology to a newly formed portfolio company called Cynash, Inc., which will introduce the cyber security technology to the market. The licensure of the technology was done through S&T’s Transition to Practice program is marks the sixth marketplace transition in the past six months. SerialTap was developed by researchers at the Energy Department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.