We're In The Best Of Hands

Hey, it's only a matter of detecting loose nukes - what's a teensy snafu?

Nuclear Bomb Detectors Stopped by Material Shortage
By MATTHEW L. WALD

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security has spent $230 million to develop better technology for detecting smuggled nuclear bombs but has had to stop deploying the new machines because the United States has run out of a crucial raw material, experts say.

The ingredient is helium 3, an unusual form of the element that is formed when tritium, an ingredient of hydrogen bombs, decays. But the government mostly stopped making tritium in 1989.

“I have not heard any explanation of why this was not entirely foreseeable,” said Representative Brad Miller, Democrat of North Carolina, who is the chairman of a House subcommittee that is investigating the problem.

An official from the Homeland Security Department testified last week before Mr. Miller’s panel, the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Science Committee, that demand for helium 3 appeared to be tenfold higher than the supply.

Some government agencies, Mr. Miller said, did anticipate a crisis, but the Homeland Security Department appears not to have gotten the message.

Some people will go postal when they read this, but folks who do not have reflexive faith in government programs aren't surprised.

As to whether this development is a surprise, the Congressional Research Service noted a looming Helium-3 shortage in this August 2009 report, although I would not say they emphasized it.

Back in April 2009 (April Fools Day, to be precise) the Director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office told Congress that helium-3 was on the way out:

Just as one example, there have been major advances made in the area of new materials for passive radiation detection.  Since all detectors rely on some material to detect the radiation emitted by a threat, discoveries of new, more effective detection materials have a high payoff because they can be incorporated into many different types of detectors for many different applications or threat scenarios.  For gamma-ray detection, the new materials will result in detectors that are more efficient, cheaper, or have improved ability to reduce false alarms.  For neutron detection, DNDO is accelerating the final development and initial production of new materials to replace the scarce, but presently-used, helium-3 by the end of FY 2009 or early FY 2010.  To put this in perspective, to advance from the discovery of a new detector material to construction of prototype instruments in the space of two-three years is really remarkable.  It is our intent to continue and accelerate these material research successes in FY 2010.

Per the Times, the White House is sticking to that story:

At the White House, Steve Fetter, an assistant director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, said the helium 3 problem was short-term because other technologies would be developed.

Comments

[Melinda Romanoff]

I bet those technologies can be found in the "Saved Or Created" filing cabinet.

[matt]

actually, the tritium shortage was well known in the technology community a while back. Unintended consequences and all that.....

[E. Nigma]

Well, they shut down the K-reactor at Savannah River back in the Clinton Administration. The Bush 41 administration had allocated funds to have it re-furbished and return to operational status.

I distinctly remember Al Gore chirping about how we would source our tritium from the Russians. That's a hot one.

So here we are. A larger but not mentioned problem is the deterioration of the Tritium used to make H-bombs go BOOM!Tritium has an 11 year half life, and in a few more years, a lot of H-bombs in our inventory will no longer be effective.

[peter]

Only a matter of time before a nuke is fired in anger somewhere in the world. When that happens, a lot of the assumptions under which we are currently operating will go out the window. Of course, that was said after 9/11, and it took us only seven years to be anesthetized back to our previous delusional state.

[MikeS]

...said the helium 3 problem was short-term because other technologies would be developed

Yeah, and it was OK to pass a hoax stimulus bill because the economy would eventually recover on its' own.

[narciso]

Get Dr. Octavius to find it, yeah they are putting science in their rightful place.

[PD]

Tritium shortage, flu vaccine shortage, all in a government's day's work.

At least the chocolate ration isn't affected, or at least not much.

[JPSobel]

Another good reason to get back to the moon and establish a mining operation. The surface of the moon is abundant (relatively; .01 PPM) with He-3.

He-3 will likely be the most important fuel in future energy generation by nuclear fusion.

[Ari Tai]

HE3 is a required for ultra-cold research - it's used in dilution refrigerators. There's no substitute. Given we can't keep out drugs or people, this is notion that defense (at the borders) can work is utter foolishness (punitive offense is the only option, sadly.. stop them early, make it so costly for them in lives and treasure that they and their friends don't bother).

What's the opportunity cost of stopping research enabled by HE3? In lives? Quality of life?

A death panel decision by any other name.

[matt]

nice to find people who actually have a clue, isn't it?

Recruit the best....pass it on...the emperor has no clothes....

Venceremos!

[hgft]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9e5jkqaHDw&feature=channel

[Pofarmer]

Would somebody who's registered at the NY POST go straighten this guy out?

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/sarah_palin_weapon_of_mass_distraction_71AFcAGWOgasJ8WO4Wy0mO

Ditching Alaska proved that she was what her enemies (Democrats, the press, the McCain staff) said she was: a flake. Getting outwitted by that intellectual grandmaster Katie Couric was embarrassing, but it wasn’t unforgivable. Taking an incomplete on your first major office in politics is unforgivable. It’s like walking away from the Vietnam War because you got a boo-boo on your forearm and got yourself a Purple Heart for it.

Palin couldn’t handle the Democratic Party machine attacks, the hostile press and the gotcha industry of Alaska? Assuming she intends to run for president in three years (and I do — otherwise why is there a SarahPAC ad on the conservative sites?), it’s as if she quit the Wiffle Ball circuit and started dropping hints she was ready to play for the Yankees.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/sarah_palin_weapon_of_mass_distraction_71AFcAGWOgasJ8WO4Wy0mO#ixzz0XgtUJqOD

I'd like to see this numbnuts look upon his professional, and public ruination, as well as the devolvement of politics in his state so nonchalantly. Would they have been more happy if Palin had stuck it out and got beat in 2010?

[vinman]

Perhaps we can simply purchase some Iranian- or NoKo-sourced materials to fill our reserves.

[Rob Crawford]

It’s like walking away from the Vietnam War because you got a boo-boo on your forearm and got yourself a Purple Heart for it.

See Kerry, John.

But supposedly he was fit for the presidency...

[andycanuck]

Has Obama been huffing all the helium 3 to talk in a funny voice at Press Club dinners?

[nittypig]

This Department of Energy report from 2008 (http://www.er.doe.gov/np/program/docs/Workshop%20Report_final.pdf0) says: "In particular the demand for helium-3, which is a by-product of tritium, exceeds the current supply and production capability. 3He is used in neutron detectors, which are of great importance for national security."

This problem has been obvious for a long time.

[nittypig]

Sorry extra "0" on the end of the pdf.

[cathyf]

DrF is in the process of buying a neutron detector right now, and says he might have to settle for a plastic scintillator. It's not as good, but it will work...

[boris]

I might still have an extra spindizzy if he's interested.