In march 2011, the president directed the secretary of homeland. Continue to rely on offsite forces for armed response, or onsite forces without. Overviewa nuclear attack by terrorists against the united states has the potential to make the terrorist attacks of september 11, 2001, look like a h preventing catastrophic nuclear terrorism. Valiant eagle and the response to nuclear terrorism the. The four faces of nuclear terrorism request pdf researchgate. Request pdf the four faces of nuclear terrorism the four. Report to the cha irman, committee on homeland security. Russia joint threat assessment on nuclear terrorism pdf. Early on, we supported field projects to secure vulnerable weaponsusable. Preventing nuclear terrorism arms control association. Nuclear terrorism is a low probability, high consequence threat. Understanding radiologic and nuclear terrorism as public.
Despite initial statements by the us nuclear regulatory commission that. President barack obama called nuclear terrorism the single. Rogue states should be a major concern with regards to nuclear terrorism, but are largely irrelevant to. Simple steps for preparedness and response to terrorist. Insofar as nuclear proliferation is a response to perceived threat, one way to reduce the nuclear pace is simple.
The four faces of nuclear terrorism, a new book from the center for nonproliferation studies, assesses the motivations and capabilities of terrorist organizations to acquire and use nuclear. Reducing nuclear threats and preventing nuclear terrorism. It would be difficult for terrorists to mount a nuclear attack on a u. Terrorism is the use of force or violence against persons or property in violation of the criminal laws of the united states for purposes of intimidation, coercion, or ransom. This capability has taken on increased significance after the attacks of september 11, 2001. Responses to terrorism in the united states terrorism. Responses to terrorism start, there have been seventeen successful incidents.
A weapon of mass destruction is a nuclear, radiological, chemical, biological, or other device that is intended to harm a large number of people. In a radiological or nuclear terrorism incident, a major chal lenge that could face response authorities is public fear and confu sion stemming, in part, from lack of understanding of radiation hazards and a lack of awareness of appropriate protective actions. The department of energy doe maintains an emergency response capability to quickly respond to potential nuclear and radiological threats in the united states. Preventing nuclear terrorism has been at the heart of ntis work since our founding. Valiant eagle and the response to nuclear terrorism.
A nuclear terrorist attack might be carried out with an improvised nuclear device ind, which is a crude nuclear device built from the components of a stolen weapon or from scratch using nuclear material plutonium or highly enriched uranium. Nuclear terrorism refers to any person or persons who detonate a nuclear weapon in an act of. Designing strategies for preventing nuclear and radiological terrorism thus requires finding different admixtures of the three broad approaches, each appropriate to different weapons problems. Possibilities that terrorist groups come into possession of nuclear weapons and apply them for terrorist purposes have been analysed. Indeed, former us president barack obama has stated that the danger of a terrorist group. Weapons of mass destruction the united states faces a rising danger from terrorists and rogue states seeking to use weapons of mass destruction. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. Preventing catastrophic nuclear terrorism council on. The result is an individuals strategy across four types of terrorist attackschemical, radiological, nuclear, and biologicalconsisting of overarching goals and simple and directive response. Page 2 gao736 nuclear terrorism response plans additional lives at risk, increase economic consequences, and undermine the publics confidence in the federal, state, and local governments ability to respond to such a crisis. Today, much of the knowledge required to build a crude nuclear device is widely available in open literature and on the internet. The events and aftermath of september 11, 2001, profoundly changed the course of history of t. In response to growing concerns over nuclear proliferation and nuclear.