Detailed Summary

Nuclear Forensics and Attribution Act - (Sec. 3) Expresses the sense of Congress that the President should: (1) pursue bilateral and multilateral international agreements to establish, under the auspices of existing bilateral or multilateral agreements, an international framework for determining the source of any confiscated nuclear or radiological material or weapon, as well as the source of any detonated weapon and the nuclear or radiological material used in such a weapon; (2) develop protocols for the data exchange and dissemination of sensitive information relating to nuclear or radiological materials and samples of controlled nuclear or radiological materials to the extent required by such agreements; and (3) develop expedited protocols for the data exchange and dissemination of sensitive information needed to publicly identify the source of a nuclear detonation.

(Sec. 4) Amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to include within the mission of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office to: (1) develop and implement methods and capabilities to support the attribution of nuclear or radiological material to its source when such material is intercepted by the United States, foreign governments, or international bodies or dispersed in the course of a terrorist attack or other nuclear or radiological explosion; (2) establish within the Office a National Technical Nuclear Forensics Center to provide centralized stewardship, planning, assessment, gap analysis, exercises, improvement, and integration for all federal nuclear forensics activities to ensure an enduring national technical nuclear forensics capability to strengthen the collective U.S. response to nuclear terrorism or other nuclear attacks; (3) establish a National Nuclear Forensics Expertise Development Program, which is devoted to developing and maintaining a vibrant and enduring academic pathway from undergraduate to post-doctorate study in nuclear and geochemical science specialties directly relevant to technical nuclear forensics, which shall make available specified undergraduate and graduate study student scholarships and faculty awards, and which shall emphasize reinvigorating technical nuclear forensics programs while encouraging the participation of undergraduate and graduate students and university faculty from historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities); and (4) provide an annual report to Congress on activities under this section.

Authorizes appropriations.

Status of the Legislation

Latest Major Action: 9/26/2008: Passed/agreed to in Senate. Status: Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent.

Points in Favor

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Points Against

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