Nuke Forensics Bill Set to Become Law

Yesterday the House passed HR 730, the Nuclear Forensics and Attribution Act. The bill is headed to President Obama for his signature now that it has passed both houses of Congress.

As explained by lead sponsor Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA),

The Nuclear Forensics and Attribution Act will authorize the National Technical Nuclear Forensics Center at DHS to coordinate the government’s nuclear forensics efforts and encourage technicians and scientists to enter the field. It will also call upon the President to lead international efforts to share nuclear forensics data.

The legislation establishes a National Nuclear Forensics Expertise Development Program, which will include such goodies as:

•    Undergraduate scholarships (including at least one summer internship at a national lab or related federal agency)
•    Doctoral fellowships (with a commitment to work on nuke forensics for the government for at least two years afterward)
•    3-5 year research grants for faculty and grad students
•    Other scholarship opportunities (especially for students from historically underrepresented communities, except no mention of women – what up with that?)

Pretty good stuff for technically-inclined baby wonks to get after once this program starts humming along.