Texas Engineering Experiment Station

The idea of unfriendly nations or terrorist groups getting their hands on nuclear or radiological weapons gives homeland security experts nightmares.

TEES nuclear engineers and policy development experts from Texas A&M University's George Bush School of Government and Public Service are working with other partners to reduce the risk that this nightmare could come true.

The idea behind the TEES National Security Science Policy Institute is to develop effective nuclear nonproliferation policies with new technologies to monitor and enforce them. Most previous efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear and radiological weapons moved along separate paths -- one policy-oriented; the other technology-oriented. This led to situations like the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty -- a good idea without the tools to make it work reliably.

Funded largely by the federal Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Agency, NSSPI brings together for the first time experts in nuclear technology and nuclear nonproliferation policy to work on nonproliferation issues.

Nonproliferation issues NSSPI researchers are working on include procedures to safeguard nuclear reactor fuel; technology and procedures to allow nuclear engineers to trace nuclear or radiological materials involved in an incident back to the reactor it came from; and more sensitive and accurate scanning devices to detect radioactive materials at ports of entry.