Getting educated through combating nuclear terrorism
DOI: 10.1063/PT.4.0949
There are just 60 researchers—mainly at the national labs—have experience in nuclear forensics, and none of them works full time on it, says Benn Tannenbaum of the Center for Science, Technology, and Security Policy of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to Peter N. Spotts of the Christian Science Monitor .
This now may change thanks to the Nuclear Forensic and Attribution Act , signed into law last month.
Although the main part of the bill aims to improve coordination and international cooperation among US agencies that probe cases of nuclear terrorism or nuclear smuggling, it has another goal—replenishing the human capital
The government will offer through the bill, scholarships for undergrads, fellowships for PhD candidates, and research awards to professors teaching in relevant fields as incentives.
In return for the PhD fellowships, graduates must work two years at a national lab or at other federal agencies that help investigate nuclear terrorism or illegal trafficking.
More about the authors
Paul Guinnessy, pguinnes@aip.org
