Insider thieves are the new nuclear threat

[kristopher]

Insider thieves are the new nuclear threat. Protect the materials and prevent the terrorism



The dark netherworlds of nuclear smuggling still pose a terrible danger to us all. Terrorists are seeking nuclear weapons and the materials to make them. Unfortunately, it doesn't take a Manhattan Project to make a crude nuclear bomb — numerous government studies have warned that a sophisticated terrorist group might pull it off, if they could get enough nuclear material. And with bits of highly enriched uranium (HEU) continuing to show up in the hands of hustlers and smugglers, the obvious question is: of which iceberg are we seeing the tip?

Fortunately, controlling the essential ingredients of nuclear weapons — plutonium and HEU, neither of which occur in nature — offers a choke point on the pathway to the bomb. If we can keep terrorists from getting these materials, we can prevent nuclear terrorism.

Already, years of co-operative efforts under the US Nunn-Lugar programme and related efforts have dramatically improved security for nuclear weapons and materials at scores of sites. Potential nuclear bomb material has been removed from dozens more, cutting out the risk of nuclear theft at those sites. These successes represent, in a real sense, bombs that will never go off.

In Washington in April, leaders from 47 countries agreed to secure all vulnerable nuclear stockpiles in four years. Now the time has come to flesh out the specifics and move from words to deeds.

The world ...

http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/20505/nuclear_smuggling.html

(From an op-ed in the Guardian titled "Nuclear Smuggling: The Expert View")

[ladjf]

1. They have been all along. nt