Nuclear terrorism denotes the use, or threat of the use, of
nuclear weaponA nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion...
s or
radiological weaponA radiological weapon or radiological dispersion device ' is any weapon that is designed to spread radioactive material with the intent to kill, and cause disruption upon a city or nation....
s in acts of
terrorismTerrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.At present, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism...
, including
attacks against facilities where radioactive materials are present. In legal terms, nuclear terrorism is an offense committed if a person unlawfully and intentionally “uses in any way radioactive material … with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury”, according to
International conventionsInternational conventions on terrorism set out obligations of states in respect to defining international counter terrorist offences, prosecuting individuals suspected of such offences, extraditing such persons upon request, and providing mutual legal assistance upon request.-Types of International...
.
The notion of terrorist organizations using nuclear weapons (especially very small ones, such as suitcase nukes) has been a threat in American rhetoric and culture.
Nuclear terrorism denotes the use, or threat of the use, of
nuclear weaponA nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion...
s or
radiological weaponA radiological weapon or radiological dispersion device ' is any weapon that is designed to spread radioactive material with the intent to kill, and cause disruption upon a city or nation....
s in acts of
terrorismTerrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.At present, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism...
, including
attacks against facilities where radioactive materials are present. In legal terms, nuclear terrorism is an offense committed if a person unlawfully and intentionally “uses in any way radioactive material … with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury”, according to
International conventionsInternational conventions on terrorism set out obligations of states in respect to defining international counter terrorist offences, prosecuting individuals suspected of such offences, extraditing such persons upon request, and providing mutual legal assistance upon request.-Types of International...
.
The notion of terrorist organizations using nuclear weapons (especially very small ones, such as suitcase nukes) has been a threat in American rhetoric and culture. It is plausible that terrorists could acquire a nuclear weapon.
Overview
Two of the main dangers associated with nuclear reactors are
nuclear proliferationNuclear proliferation is a term now used to describe the spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information, to nations which are not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the...
and nuclear terrorism. Terrorism involving nuclear weapons or radioactive materials could take a variety of forms. Terrorists could:
- Attack a nuclear reactor.
- Disrupt critical inputs (eg., water supply) for the safe running of a nuclear reactor.
- Steal nuclear fuel or waste.
- Acquire fissile material and fabricate a nuclear bomb.
- Acquire a ready-made nuclear weapon or take over a nuclear-armed submarine, plane or base.
History
As early as December 1945, politicians worried about the possibility of smuggling nuclear weapons into the United States, though this was still in the context of a battle between the superpowers of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
. Congressmen quizzed the "father of the atomic bomb," J. Robert Oppenheimer, about the possibility of detecting a smuggled atomic bomb:
- Sen. Millikin: We... have mine-detecting devices, which are rather effective... I was wondering if anything of that kind might be available to use as a defense against that particular type of use of atomic bombs.
- Dr. Oppenheimer: If you hired me to walk through the cellars of Washington to see whether there were atomic bombs, I think my most important tool would be a screwdriver to open the crates and look. I think that just walking by, swinging a little gadget would not give me the information.
This sparked further work on the question of smuggled atomic devices during the 1950s.
Discussions of non-state nuclear terrorism among experts go back at least to the 1970s. In 1975
The EconomistThe Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in an office in the City of Westminster, London. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843. While The Economist calls itself a...
warned that "You can make a bomb with a few pounds of plutonium. By the mid-1980s the power stations may easily be turning out 200,000 lb of the stuff each year. And each year, unless present methods are drastically changed, many thousands of pounds of it will be transferred from one plant to another as it proceeds through the fuel cycle. The dangers of robbery in transit are evident.... Vigorous co-operation between governments and the International Atomic Energy Agency could, even at this late stage, make the looming perils loom a good deal smaller." And the New York Times commented in 1981 that The Nuclear Emergency Search Team's "origins go back to the aftershocks of the Munich Olympic massacre in the
summerSummer is one of the four temperate seasons, marked by the time of year with the longest days, and lies between spring and autumn. The seasons are popularly considered to start on different dates in different cultures based on astronomy and regional meteorology. When it is summer in the southern...
of 1972. Until that time, no one in the United States Government had thought seriously about the menace of organized, international terrorism, much less nuclear terrorism. There was a perception in Washington that the value of what is called 'special nuclear material' - plutonium or highly enriched uranium - was so enormous that the strict financial accountability of the private contractors who dealt with it would be enough to protect it from falling into the wrong hands. But it has since been revealed that the physical safeguarding of bomb-grade material against theft was almost scandalously neglected."
This discussion took on a larger public character in the 1980s after
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
aired a television dramatization of a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States. In 1986 a private panel of experts known as the International Task Force on the Prevention of Terrorism released a report urging all nuclear-armed states to beware the dangers of terrorism and work on equipping their nuclear arsenals with permissive action links. "The probability of nuclear terrorism," the experts warned, "is increasing and the consequences for urban and industrial societies could be catastrophic."
Radiological Weapons
It is possible for a terrorist group to detonate a radiological or '
dirty bombThe term dirty bomb refers to a speculative radiological weapon which combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. Though an RDD would be designed to disperse radioactive material over a large area, a bomb that uses conventional explosives would likely have more immediate lethal...
'. A '
dirty bombThe term dirty bomb refers to a speculative radiological weapon which combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. Though an RDD would be designed to disperse radioactive material over a large area, a bomb that uses conventional explosives would likely have more immediate lethal...
' is composed of any radioactive source and a conventional explosive. The radioactive material is dispersed by the detonation of the explosive. Detonation of such a weapon is not as powerful as a nuclear blast, but can produce considerable radioactive
falloutFallout or nuclear fallout is the residual radiation hazard from a nuclear explosion.Fallout may also refer to:*Fallout , a 1997 post-apocalyptic computer role-playing game released by Interplay Entertainment...
. There are other radiological weapons called radiological dispersal devices where an explosive is not necessary. A radiological weapon may be very appealing to terrorist groups as it is highly successful in instilling fear and panic amongst a population (particularly because of the threat of
radiation poisoningRadiation poisoning, also called radiation sickness or a creeping dose, is a form of damage to organ tissue due to excessive exposure to ionizing radiation...
), and would contaminate the immediate area for some period of time, disrupting attempts to repair the damage. The economic losses could be enormous - easily reaching into the tens of billions of dollars.
Alleged nuclear terrorism attempts and plans
In June 2002, U.S. citizen
Jose PadillaJosé Padilla , also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir or Muhajir Abdullah, is a United States citizen convicted of aiding terrorists....
was arrested for allegedly planning a radiological attack on the city of
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
; however, he was never charged with such conduct. He was instead convicted of charges that he conspired to "murder, kidnap and maim" people overseas.
In November 2006,
MI5The Security Service commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of the intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service , Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence Staff...
warned that Islamic terrorists, specifically the al-Qaida were planning on using nuclear weapons against cities in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
by obtaining the bombs via
clandestineA clandestine operation is an intelligence or military operation carried out in such a way that the operation goes unnoticed.The Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms defines "clandestine operation" as "An operation sponsored or conducted by governmental departments or...
means.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1947295,00.html
In June 2007, the
FBIThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
released to the press the name of
Adnan Gulshair el ShukrijumahBorn in Saudi Arabia, Adnan Gulshair el Shukrijumah is an alleged member of al-Qaeda, who grew up in the United States and worked as a school teacher....
, allegedly the operations leader for developing tactical plans for detonating nuclear bombs in several American cities simultaneously.
The murder of LitvinenkoAlexander Litvinenko was a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service, FSB and KGB, who escaped prosecution in Russia and received political asylum in the United Kingdom...
with radioactive polonium "represents an ominous landmark: the beginning of an era of nuclear terrorism," according to Andrew J. Patterson.
Security specialist Shaun Gregory argued in an article that terrorists have attacked Pakistani nuclear facilities three times in the recent past; twice in 2007 and once in 2008.
Recovering lost weapons & material
In August 2002, the United States launched a program to track and secure
enriched uraniumEnriched uranium is a kind of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Natural uranium is 99.284% 238U isotope, with 235U only constituting about 0.711% of its weight...
from 24
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
-style reactors in 16 countries, in order to reduce the risk of the materials falling into the hands of terrorists or "
rogue stateRogue state is a term applied by some international theorists to states considered threatening to the world's peace. This means meeting certain criteria, such as being ruled by authoritarian regimes that severely restrict human rights, sponsor terrorism, and seek to proliferate weapons of mass...
s". The first such operation was
Project Vinca, "a multinational, public-private effort to remove nuclear material from a poorly secured Yugoslav research institute." The project has been hailed as "a nonproliferation success story" with the "potential to inform broader 'global cleanout' efforts to address one of the weakest links in the nuclear nonproliferation chain: insufficiently secured civilian nuclear research facilities."
In order to reduce the danger of attacks using nuclear waste material,
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
Commissioner
Loyola de PalacioLoyola de Palacio y del Valle-Lersundi was a Spanish politician. She was one of the first women to rise to political prominence in Spain during the early years of democracy. She was a minister in the Spanish government from 1996 to 1998, and a member of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004...
suggested in November 2002 the creation of common standards in the European Union, especially in the new member states operating Soviet-era reactors, for subterranean nuclear waste disposal.
60 Minutes reported that in November 2007, burglars with unknown intentions infiltrated the
PelindabaThe Pelindaba nuclear research facility is situated near the Hartbeespoort Dam, west of Pretoria in the Republic of South Africa. It is South Africa's main Nuclear Research Centre, run by the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa, and was the location where South Africa's atomic bombs of the...
nuclear research facility near Pretoria, South Africa. The burglars escaped without acquiring any of the weapon-grade Uranium held at the facility.
See also
- List of crimes involving radioactive substances
- Nuclear espionage
Nuclear espionage is the purposeful giving of state secrets regarding nuclear weapons to other states without authorization . During the history of nuclear weapons there have been many cases of known nuclear espionage, and also many cases of suspected or alleged espionage...
- Pelindaba
The Pelindaba nuclear research facility is situated near the Hartbeespoort Dam, west of Pretoria in the Republic of South Africa. It is South Africa's main Nuclear Research Centre, run by the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa, and was the location where South Africa's atomic bombs of the...
- Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.At present, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism...
- The World Institute for Nuclear Security
The World Institute for Nuclear Security is an organization which seeks to prevent nuclear terrorism and improve world nuclear security. It works alongside the International Atomic Energy Agency...
- Weapons of mass destruction
The term weapon of mass destruction is often used to describe a weapon that can kill large numbers of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general....
Books
- Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe
Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe is a 2004 book by Harvard scholar Graham Allison. Allison explains that terrorists have been striving to acquire and then use nuclear weapons against the United States. President George W...
- On Nuclear Terrorism
In his 2007 book On Nuclear Terrorism, author Michael A. Levi surveys the issue of nuclear terrorism and explores the decisions a terrorist leader might take in pursuing a nuclear plot...
- The Four Faces of Nuclear Terrorism
The Four Faces of Nuclear Terrorism is a 2004 book by Charles D. Ferguson and William C. Potter The Four Faces of Nuclear Terrorism is a 2004 book by Charles D. Ferguson and William C. Potter The Four Faces of Nuclear Terrorism is a 2004 book by Charles D. Ferguson and William C. Potter (with Amy...
- The Seventh Decade: The New Shape of Nuclear Danger
The Seventh Decade: The New Shape of Nuclear Danger is a 2007 book by Jonathan Schell. It is described as a provocative book which explores the threat posed by some new nuclear policies of the United States...
External links