The nuclear threat:
Although nuclear weapons have not been used in warfare since 1945, nations still maintain about 12,000 warheads as a means of achieving global dominance or as deterrence against hostile states. The threat posed by terrorist groups who seek to acquire and use nuclear or radiological weapons has been heightened as well, particularly since the 9/11 attacks.
Numerous departments and agencies in the United States and internationally continue to work diligently on prevention, detection, interdiction, device defeat, consequence management, nuclear forensics and attribution to counter the threat of terrorist acts involving radiological or nuclear materials. Each of these steps, which together are called the nuclear event pathway, must be successful in order to prevent a terrorist act involving those materials.
Unlike state actors, terrorists do not care about weight and size constraints or other safety requirements that are imposed upon military-grade material and devices; they may be willing to accept higher dose rates and other risk factors in return for lower cost and greater convenience; and they are not bound by international law or nuclear treaties or agreements. Terrorists are also free to take a great deal of creativity and flexibility in design, fabrication and delivery methods.
Scores of opportunities await terrorists in the world’s nuclear arsenals, including sites with weapon-usable highly enriched uranium (HEU) and separated plutonium that are not adequately protected against theft. If these caches could be reliably secured, the threat of nuclear terrorism would be greatly diminished and hostile states would not be able to take advantage of them for their own ends.
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