Nuclear forensics

Responding to recommendations issued earlier this year by a joint working group of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Senate committee in April authorized $25 million to establish a nuclear forensics program in the US Department of Energy. The Committee on Armed Services included another $5 million for fellowships to train scientists how to trace the origins of captured nuclear materials and to analyze radioactive debris after a nuclear attack. The provisions were included in the annual bill that authorizes the Department of Defense and DOE nuclear weapons programs. On the House side, the defense bill approved by an Armed Services subcommittee included just $5 million for nuclear forensics. But when the full House takes up the bill, newly elected Representative Bill Foster (D-IL), a former Fermilab physicist, is expected to offer an amendment to raise the amount to the Senate level....