Nuclear technologies, fissile materials, and
radioactive sources remain at risk to be targeted by criminals and terrorists.
The prospect of nuclear crime and terrorism is not merely a theoretical one, as
- radioactive materials have been turned into murder weapons
repeatedly;
- nuclear power plants have been assaulted or credibly threatened (dozens of serious incidents in the past forty years are documented); and
- two well-funded terrorist organizations, al-Qaeda and Aum Shinrikyo, have seriously pursued ingredients of nuclear bombs (the former presumably even
experimented with non-nuclear components for such a device).
The good news is that terrorists have not yet been successful
in mounting a large-scale radiological or a nuclear attack. To keep it that way, national
governments and the international community need to strengthen the instruments
of nuclear security - most urgently those to protect weapons-usable fissile
materials from theft and nuclear facilities from attack or sabotage.
The articles on this website introduce some
of the key aspects of nuclear security and nuclear terrorism
prevention. They explain what needs to be done to keep highly enriched
uranium and plutonium, the main ingredients of nuclear weapons, out
of the hands of terrorists. They discuss the terrorist threat to nuclear
facilities, including some of the lessons to be learned from the Fukushima
disaster for both safety and security of nuclear power plants. And they deal
with the issue of “dirty bombs” and how to protect the radioactive sources so widely
used in medicine and industry.
The
collection includes links to open-access papers and power-point-presentations written by my great colleagues, other trusted experts, and myself. I hope that it will be useful as a backgrounder for
journalists and for everybody else who is interested in learning about these important matters.
Comments and questions are
welcome. Please contact me at Tom.Bielefeld[at]gmail.com.
Information about the Nuclear Security Summit 2016 in Washington DC
Terrorism and Nuclear Weapons
Terrorism, Radioactive Materials, and "Dirty Bombs"
Terrorism and Nuclear Power Plants
- "Threats to Civil Nuclear Energy Facilities," by John Holdren. Paper
(pp. 61-69) presented at the Indo-US-Workshop on Science and Technology
to Counter Terrorism (2007).
- "Terrorism and Military Attacks on Nuclear Facilities,"
by Charles Ferguson. Section (pp. 23-29) of a report on the "Potential
Strategic Consequences of the Nuclear Energy Revival" (2010).
- "Nuclear Safety and Security at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit," by Sharon Squassoni (paper written for the US-Korea Institute, March 2012).
- "Integrating Nuclear Safety and Security: Policy Recommendations," by Kenneth Luongo, Sharon Squassoni, and Joel Wit. Memo written for CSIS and the US-Korea Institute (December 2011).
-
Drones: These two short articles from 2015 are useful as
a quick introduction to the issue of drones in the context of nuclear security:
“Drones at nuclear power plants: enemies or helpers?” by David Lochbaum and “Drones: Good News and Bad News for Nuclear Security”, by Matthew Bunn. -
Cyber: Two interesting reports from 2015 focus on the
ever more important issue of protecting nuclear facilities from cyber-attacks: “Cyber Security at Civil Nuclear Facilities: Understanding the Risks,” by Caroline
Baylon, David Livingstone, and Roger Brunt and “Cyber Security at Nuclear Facilities: National Approaches,” sponsored by NTI and undertaken by the
Institute for Security and Safety at the University of Brandenburg.
Websites
- The Nuclear Threat Initiative. (NTI provides a wealth of nuclear security-related information, including analysis and policy documents. Home of the new country-by-country "Nuclear Security Index" and of the report series on "Securing the Bomb",
which assesses the state of fissile materials security and the progress
made in international cooperative threat reduction efforts.)
- The Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
(Articles, reports, and commentary on nuclear security and non-proliferation).
- The International Panel on Fissile Materials
(IPFM provides in-depth analysis on nuclear weapon and fissile material
stockpiles and production as well as on initiatives for stockpile
reduction.)
- "NukeMap," by Alex Wellerstein. Educational tool, involving Google Maps(TM), to illustrate the range of nuclear weapons effects (2012).
(Back to Main Page)
Image Credits for Nuclear Security and Terrorism website
Pelindaba Nuclear Research Center by NJRZA (Wikipedia).
Tom Bielefeld, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Tom_Bielefeld[at]hks.harvard.edu
URL: <https://sites.google.com/site/tombielefeld/home/nuclearsterrorisminfo> (v/0315)
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