I recently reviewed a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report evaluating the MSRAM - the Coast Guard's primary tool for assessing and managing security risks.

Two repulsive interactions lead to a strong attraction – who knew? The researchers at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPC PAS) in Warsaw, that's who.

According to a recent press release from the institute, "When two objects repel each other under the action of one force, we usually expect that addition of another force, also repulsive one, will accelerate separation. This intuitive view is, however, not always true."

Last week, I learned that the National Maritime Security Advisory Committee (NMSAC) is holding a public meeting on January 18-19, 2012 in Washington, D.C. to discuss various issues relating to national maritime security. NMSAC will meet on Wednesday January 18 from 9 am to 3 pm and on Thursday January 19 from 9 am to 12 pm.

Day 1's agenda will include discussion of the following topics:

On December 21, Fox News obtained a copy of an internal memo by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) evaluating the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program. While copies of the memo have not been circulated beyond Fox News, it reportedly identifies significant shortfalls in DHS's progress of reaching compliance and a number of human resource problems slowing its implementation.

Recently, I reviewed a report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) evaluating the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) Port Security Grant Program (PSGP),  which provides funding to protect critical maritime infrastructure and the public from terrorist attacks.

I recently ran across an article about a new technology that could one day aid law enforcement agencies in tracing the origins of chemical weapons. "Impurity profiling" is used to identify impurities in a chemical and link it to the source where attackers obtained the ingredients. Up to 88% of impurities in source chemicals may end up in the finished product, acting as a kind of chemical fingerprint.

In theory, everything will work as planned. It's not until a system is tested that manufacturers can be certain their processes are sound. Even better, an unexpected "test" to the system will expose all chinks in the process chain.

Enter Rocky Raccoon. According to Industry Safety And Security Source, a raccoon found its way into electrical equipment at the Delaware City, Del., refinery knocking a number of units offline, causing a large flaring incident in early December.

It's been quite a year in the chemical industry.

Interest in chemical transportation regulation has steadily increased in recent years on a global scale. This year, the World Customs Organization (WCO) and its 177 members approved a proposal for the Program Global Shield pilot to become a long-term program. Program Global Shield is the joint international effort aimed at eliminating the smuggling of chemicals commonly used in Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks.

The program was originally designed by the U.S.

Last week, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a notice of inquiry seeking public comments on the impact that implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) has had on commercial activities involving “Schedule 1” chemicals during 2011.