Threat of Nuclear Terrorism Is Real and Growing
The longer term “impending crisis” in countering nuclear terrorism is the loss of nuclear specialists.
The threat of a nuclear attack by terrorists against the United States is growing, a senior Homeland Security official Vayl Oxford, director of domestic nuclear detection at DHS, told a senate hearing on the danger posed by terrorists attempting to smuggle a nuclear device into the country. “The nuclear threat is real and growing,” he said. Oxford described the longer term “impending crisis” in countering nuclear terrorism is the loss of nuclear specialists.
We are losing nuclear engineers. We’re losing nuclear weapons designers across the complex as the support for the nuclear weapons program goes down,”
The U.S. nuclear complex is shifting from an offensive mission of designing and manufacturing nuclear weapons to a defensive posture to counter nuclear threats. “We need about 100 Ph.D.s per year coming out of our colleges and universities to reinvigorate that complex so we can take on the kind of challenges that you’re asking about,” he said.
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Comment by Marshall Ivan Risidin on 5 October 2008:
It will, of course happen–AND–remember the far more likely biological threat. It takes many billions to produce the simplest fully exploding nuclear weapon, only thousands for bio agents. Dirty nukes are relatively east but do not have the impact.
It begs the question, when striking back, who, where, and how much.
About the only effective deterrent would be an understanding with the muslim nations–just like the old general plan against the Soviets–ANYTHING happens, its your fault, the response will be total destruction.
As poignant as your article, few will choose to believe it until it occurs.