The Homeland Defense (HD) Digest is a curated bi-weekly news summary from worldwide sources, showing headlines of innovative, emerging technologies in HDIAC's eight focus areas.

HDIAC ANNOUNCEMENTS:

HDIAC Webinars – The Continued Threat of Infectious Diseases to the U.S. Military - HDIAC.org

Join HDIAC Friday, January 15, from 1200 to 1300 EST for a webinar presentation titled "The Continued Threat of Infectious Diseases to the U.S. Military." Please register in advance for the webinar at: https://www.anymeeting.com/PIID=EF59DA85844938 The US military is an expeditionary force and constantly engaged in global missions. During deployment, servicemembers are often at risk from infectious diseases which have the potential to make the individual and the unit mission incapable and cause significant morbidity and mortality. Diseases such as malaria, dengue, diarrheal diseases, and many others threaten the force and require medical countermeasures to eliminate or mitigate the risk.

In Case You Missed It: The HDIAC Podcast – Nuclear Arms Control Treaties – Part 1 and 2 - HDIAC.org

In this two-part video podcast, Dirk Plante, Deputy Director of the HDIAC, interviews Pranay Vaddi, a fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, discussing early efforts by the United States and other nations to enter into multi-lateral arms control treaties, including the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty as well as bilateral treaties with the former Soviet Union.

RECENT HEADLINES:

DHS Modernizes Critical Identification Requirements after Congress Passes REAL ID Modernization Act - DHS.gov

As a result of extensive state, industry, and government collaboration, Congress has passed the bipartisan REAL ID Modernization Act. The Act modernizes REAL ID requirements originally set more than 15 years ago.

Nuclear Waste Storage Canisters to Be Tested - Homeland Security News Wire

Three 22.5-ton, 16.5-feet-long stainless-steel storage canisters, with heaters and instrumentation to simulate nuclear waste so researchers can study their durability, will be tested at Sandia National Lab. The three canisters have never contained any nuclear materials. They will be used to study how much salt gathers on canisters over time. Sandia will also study the potential for cracks caused by salt- and stress-induced corrosion with additional canisters that will be delivered during the next stage of the project.

Louisiana Airport to Be Site of New National Guard Center - Military.com

Construction is scheduled to begin next fall on a 60,000-square-foot National Guard readiness center at an airport in Lake Charles.

Analyzing Forensic Signatures of Nuclear Materials to Prevent Smuggling - Homeland Security News Wire

A scientific exercise scenario involved seized nuclear materials for which law enforcement requested nuclear forensic analysis to help discern whether the process histories of the two seized materials were consistent with one another and related to similar materials seized previously by authorities. The exercise was part of an international nuclear forensic drill in support of a simulated nuclear smuggling investigation.

Department of Energy Releases Energy Storage Grand Challenge Roadmap - Energy.gov

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released the Energy Storage Grand Challenge Roadmap, the Department's first comprehensive energy storage strategy. Announced in January 2020 by U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette, the Energy Storage Grand Challenge (ESGC) seeks to create and sustain American leadership in energy storage. In addition to concerted research efforts, the Roadmap's approach includes accelerating the transition of technologies from the lab to the marketplace, focusing on ways to competitively manufacture technologies at scale in the United States, and ensuring secure supply chains to enable domestic manufacturing. The Roadmap includes an aggressive but achievable goal: to develop and domestically manufacture energy storage technologies that can meet all U.S. market demands by 2030.

Researchers Identify Which West Coast Regions Hold Greatest Wave Energy Potential - PNNL.gov

Washington and Oregon coastlines are home not only to sea stacks and vistas, they also hold the most promising areas to pull power from West Coast waves, according to a recent study published in the journal Energy and led by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

I AM Hydro Prize Winners Leverage Advanced Manufacturing Expertise to Bolster Hydropower - NREL.gov

Eleven winning teams claimed top honors with their concepts to leverage the rapid innovations enabled by advanced manufacturing to solve hydropower's critical challenges.

APS Plays Foundational Role in Development of COVID-19 Vaccines - Anl.gov

There is light at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic tunnel. Several vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 are now in clinical trials, with two - developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna - already having been approved for emergency use in the United States. This has been the fastest development and rollout of any vaccine in history, starting with the first gene sequence released in January. (The previous record was held by the mumps vaccine, which took four years.)

The Homeland Defense and Security Information Analysis Center (HDIAC) is a Department of Defense (DoD) Information Analysis Center (IAC) sponsored by the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). The HD Digest provides links to third party Websites. The HDIAC is not responsible for the availability of, and content provided on, third party Websites. You should refer to the policies posted by other Websites regarding their privacy and other topics before you use them. The HDIAC is not responsible for third party content accessible through the HDIAC HD Digest, including opinions, advice, statements, advertisements and endorsements, and you bear all risks associated with the use of such content.