Page 284 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism
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                                                                                        Nuclear Terrorism———263


                  The project to build the first U.S. nuclear weapons  produced a situation where material may be at risk.
                in World War II was a massive undertaking requiring  There have been enough reports of thefts of small
                the full resources of a powerful nation. Could terror-  quantities of fissionable materials from Russia to indi-
                ists do it? What is the probability that they have both  cate that the problem is a real one. The United States
                the skills and technology needed to take the next  and other nations have responded to this threat by pro-
                step? Could they make a fission bomb or perhaps    viding assistance to Russia to improve facility secu-
                even a thermonuclear weapon? We can consider sev-  rity and provide more employment support for
                eral possible scenarios.                           weapons scientists. It has also arranged to purchase
                                                                   fissionable material from Russia and Kazakhstan that
                                                                   might otherwise have been diverted from legitimate
                A TERRORIST THREAT ASSESSMENT                      custody. Those aid programs continue today. Plans to
                                                                   dispose of surplus plutonium have proceeded slowly
                We can say with complete confidence that it would be
                                                                   because of policy arguments within and between the
                nearly impossible for a terrorist organization that did
                                                                   Russian and U.S. governments, but the administration
                not have the support of a government to produce the
                                                                   of U.S. president George W. Bush appears to have set-
                fissionable uranium or plutonium for a fission bomb
                                                                   tled on a plan to use plutonium from surplus nuclear
                from raw materials. Nor is it possible that such a
                                                                   weapons to make reactor fuel that the Russians will
                group of non-state actors could take irradiated nuclear
                                                                   probably find satisfactory.
                fuel from a reactor and extract plutonium from it. The
                technologies involved are too complex, dangerous,
                and expensive for a small group to master.         TERRORIST THEFT OF
                  Suppose, however, that terrorists could somehow  INTACT NUCLEAR WEAPONS
                obtain the fissionable uranium or plutonium in either
                metallic or powder form through theft, purchase, or  Of course, if terrorists obtained a functioning nuclear
                bribery. In that case, a group that had access to scien-  weapon through force, theft, or bribery, that would
                tific and engineering expertise including nuclear  pose an immediate threat of the greatest magnitude.
                physicists, electrical engineers, skilled machinists,  Nuclear weapons themselves are kept under very high
                and explosives experts could probably make a nuclear  security conditions in all countries possessing them.
                device with an explosive yield approaching that of the  They are also equipped with various safety and
                weapons used against Japan. Such a device would    security features to keep them from being used by
                probably not be small enough to be dropped from    unauthorized persons. Information regarding their
                any aircraft that terrorists could commandeer or be  locations, and the security procedures associated with
                launched as a missile warhead, but it would be deliv-  them, is highly classified.
                erable by truck, railcar, or container transported   There is relatively little public information available
                by ship.                                           from countries other than the United States about any
                  The threat posed by the existence of many tons of  tests that have been conducted to penetrate security
                uranium and plutonium in the stockpiles of nuclear  screens and seize an intact weapon. National authori-
                weapon states is one of the most dangerous ones    ties in declared nuclear weapon states assert that their
                faced by governments attempting to block terrorist  weapons are under tight control. During the 2001 war
                acquisition of nuclear weapons. Such stockpiles are  in Afghanistan, however, press reports circulated sug-
                heavily guarded, but in tests carried out in the United  gesting that U.S. officials were poised to intervene in
                States, highly trained paramilitary strike forces suc-  Pakistan in the event that fundamentalist groups
                ceeded in about 50 percent of the trials in penetrating  aligned with terrorists succeeded in overthrowing the
                security barriers at national laboratories and produc-  Pakistani military government and threatened to seize
                tion facilities to seize dangerous quantities of nuclear  Pakistan’s small nuclear weapon stockpile. The unoffi-
                materials.                                         cial Pakistani response was that its government was in
                  The problem of fissionable material stockpile    no danger and that its nuclear weapons were under
                security is particularly acute in Russia, where low  tight control.
                salaries, poor morale among scientific workers, and  The United States and Russia once possessed
                deteriorating physical security systems at weapons  stockpiles of small nuclear weapons, sometimes called
                laboratories such as Sarov and Zelenogorsk have    “suitcase bombs,” that could be carried by one or
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