Some Surprising News About Nuclear Terrorism

 

Yesterday was a day of pleasant surprises. The best surprise was an article that turned up in the Smithsonian Air And Space Museum magazine titled "Atomic Enemy At The Gate":

https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/atomic-enemy-gate-180975836/

     As many of you know, I have always had a keen interest in nuclear terrorism. A couple of great books have been written on the subject. Major studios have produced big budget movies on the subject including The Sum of All Their Fears.

       If some state actor launches a nuclear weapon on an aircraft, ballistic missile, or cruise missile, super-advanced technology picks it up in nanoseconds. We would know who did it. We would know who to hold accountable.

       However, if a state actor or terrorist group decides to smuggle a nuclear warhead, components for a nuclear warhead, or just radiation materials to make a dirty bomb; there is a huge challenge. Andy Narain, Mandy Findlater, and I have worked in international trade for decades. When a shipping container arrives at some US, Canadian, or Brasilian port, customs workers have the resources to open and inspect only 3% of them. Now these ports of entry are supposed to have operational radiation detectors. Who knows how effective they would be. It is a very similar situation when air freight comes in.

        We have not had a nuclear weapon fired in anger for 75 years. Let us hope this never happens again in human history. There have been a couple of close calls with Russia/US confrontations. There have been mistakes where "cool heads" have prevented a disaster. (I give great credit to the Russians here.)

         When the old Soviet Union broke up, there was a rush to secure all the nuclear warheads. It was feared that some broke Russian scientist or military officers would sell one of these warheads to terrorists or rogue state actors. Likewise, when Pakistan and North Korea got nuclear weapons, there was the fear that warheads would be sold to rogue states and terrorist groups.

    I have always been concerned that this threat did not get the attention that it deserved from people in power. The article that I read was a pleasant surprise. For decades authorities in the US ranging from the director of the FBI to the President took the possibility of nuclear terrorism very seriously. A lot of money was spent to protect us from this possibility.

    It all started during the Cold War. It was assumed that Soviet diplomats would smuggle in components of a nuclear weapon in diplomatic pouches. The weapon would be assembled at the Soviet Embassy or at a Soviet consulate. There were seizures of radioactive material. The truth always comes out.