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The potential effects of a terrorist attack involving the atmospheric release of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or other hazardous materials continue to be of concern to the United States. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency has developed a Hazard Prediction Assessment Capability (HPAC) that includes initial features to address hazardous releases within an urban environment. Improved characterization and understanding of urban transport and dispersion are required to allow for more robust modeling. In 2001, a scaled urban setting was created in the desert of Utah using shipping containers, and tracer gases were released. This atmospheric tracer and meteorological study is known as the Mock Urban Setting Test (MUST). This paper describes the creation of sets of HPAC predictions and comparisons with the MUST field experiment. Strong consistency between the conclusions of this study and a previously reported HPAC evaluation that relied on urban tracer observations within the downtown area of Salt Lake City was found. For example, in both cases, improved predictions were associated with the inclusion of a simple empirically based urban dispersion model within HPAC, whereas improvements associated with the inclusion of a more computationally intensive wind field module were not found. The use of meteorological observations closest to the array and well above the obstacle array--the sonic anemometer measurements 16 m above ground level--resulted in predictions with the best fit to the observed tracer concentrations. The authors speculate that including meteorological observations or vertical wind profiles above or upwind of an urban region might be a sufficient input to create reasonable HPAC hazard-area predictions.

The 10 August 2006 arrest in Britain of 24 terrorists bent on smuggling bomb components aboard airplanes and combining them en route is just the latest salvo in the Darwinian [...]

The article presents possible terrorism scenarios involving nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, and discusses potential areas of vulnerability, methods of prevention and disaster relief proposals. It also emphasizes the importance of proper risk assessment to ensure adequate emergency planning.

US Congressional law and other international treaties require the destruction and safe disposal of chemical warfare materials. Much public opposition has been expressed over the planned on-site incineration of these chemicals. However, the US Army claims that incineration will be cheaper than stockpiling., The United States is bound by Congressional law and international treaty requirements to destroy its entire arsenal of chemical warfare material. Public attention has largely focused on the Army's efforts [...]

The chemical program that was to build police and medical capabilities struggled in Oregon for a decade. Government agencies squashed through $50 million but were however unable to protect people.

For almost a decade, U.S. military veterans have expressed concerns about the potential long-term health effects of chemical warfare agents and other hazardous materials that might have been used during [...]

The Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Utah has been designed to destroy more than one weapon at a time, and will destroy 42.3% of the US Army's chemical weapons. An on site incineration facility eliminates the risk of transporting weapons to more centralized facilities. The program goal of the Program Manager Chemical Demilitarization is to destroy the whole stockpile by 2004.

Issues relating to the contention that if public defences against chemical and biological attacks are to be bolstered, then scientists must share information are examined. It is argued that sensible, rational thinking and a commitment to the sharing of information are required in order to ensure that the latest scientific and technological developments can be employed to protect people against the threat of chemical and biological weapons.

Chemical weapons in the 'hood In the September/October 2001 Bulletin, Jonathan Tucker reported on a Washington, D.C., neighborhood, Spring Valley, the only residential area in the United States where major […]