Preventing a nuclear terrorist attack

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Before Sept. 11, 2001, most Americans found the idea that international terrorists could mount an attack on their homeland and kill thousands of innocent citizens not just unlikely, but inconceivable.

After more than six years without a second attack on U.S. soil, some skeptics suggest that Sept. 11 was a 100-year flood. The view that terrorists are preparing even more deadly assaults seems as far-fetched to them as the possibility of terrorists crashing passenger jets into the World Trade Center did before that fateful Tuesday morning.

To assess the threat of nuclear terrorism, it is necessary to answer five questions:

1. Who could be planning a nuclear terrorist attack? Al Qaeda remains a formidable enemy with clear nuclear ambitions. Former CIA Director George Tenet wrote in his memoirs that al Qaeda's leadership has remained "singularly focused on acquiring WMD [weapons of mass destruction]" and willing to "pay whatever it would cost to get their hands on fissile material."

2. What nuclear weapons could terrorists use? They could acquire an existing bomb from one of the nuclear weapons states or construct an elementary nuclear device from highly enriched uranium (HEU) made by a state. Theft of a warhead or material would not be easy, but attempted thefts in Russia and elsewhere are not uncommon.

Once a terrorist group acquires about 100 pounds of HEU, using publicly available documents and items commercially obtainable in any technologically advanced country, terrorists could conceivably construct a bomb such as the one dropped on Hiroshima.

3. Where could terrorists acquire a nuclear bomb? If a nuclear attack occurs, Russia will be the most likely source of the weapon or material. Russia has more nuclear weapons and materials than any other country, much of it still vulnerable to theft. A close second would be North Korea.

Pyongyang has boasted that it not only possesses nuclear weapons but might export them, saying, "It's up to you whether we... transfer them." Finally, research reactors in 40 developing and transitional countries still hold the essential ingredient for nuclear bombs.

4. When could terrorists launch the first nuclear attack? If terrorists bought or stole a nuclear weapon in good working condition, they could explode it today. If the weapon had a lock, detonation would be delayed for several days. If terrorists acquired 100 pounds of HEU, they could have a working, elementary nuclear bomb in less than a year.

5. How could terrorists deliver a nuclear weapon to its target? The illicit economy for narcotics and illegal immigrants has built up a vast infrastructure that terrorists could exploit.