Preparing the country for nuclear terrorism

[kristopher]

7 OCTOBER 2016

Preparing the country for nuclear terrorism
Jerome M. Hauer

Jerome M. Hauer has served in cabinet-level positions at the local and state level and as an acting assistant secretary for the Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness at the US Department of Health and Human Services. Hauer is currently an associate editor of the Journal of Special Operations Medicine and president elect of the Homeland Security Section of the Health Physics Society. He earned his doctorate at Cranfield University, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, has a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and holds a bachelor’s degree from New York University..

The candidates for president of the United States continue to discuss preventing nuclear proliferation and the threat of nuclear terrorism, yet we hear little about how well prepared the nation is to manage the aftermath of terrorist use of an improvised nuclear device. Some may think the notion of such an attack is apocryphal. So allow me to explain just how likely such a possibility is, how devastating the result of such a detonation would be, and—in particular—just how poorly prepared the United States is to respond.

In 2005, Kofi Annan, former secretary general of the United Nations, said, “Nuclear terrorism is still often treated as science fiction. I wish it were. But unfortunately we live in a world of excess hazardous materials and abundant technological know-how, in which some terrorists clearly state their intention to inflict catastrophic casualties. Were such an attack to occur, it would not only cause widespread death and destruction, but would stagger the world economy ... [creating] a second death toll throughout the developing world.

In 2007, US Sen. John McCain was quoted as saying, “My greatest fear is the Iranians acquire a nuclear weapon or North Korea and pass enough highly enriched uranium (HEU) to a terrorist organization. And there is a real threat of them doing that. Just 55 kilograms, roughly 122 pounds of HEU, can be used to make a 10 kiloton IND, similar to the bomb dropped over Hiroshima."

In 2005, Graham Allison, director of Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, asked, "Is nuclear mega-terrorism inevitable? Harvard professors are not known for being subtle or ambiguous, but I'll try to the clear. Is the worst yet to come? My answer: Bet on it. Yes.

Matthew Bunn, also at the Belfer Center, argued in 2007...

http://thebulletin.org/preparing-country-nuclear-terrorism9985

[kristopher]

2. I'm pretty sure that the powers-that-be who pushed GWB's WOT fright scam...

...are solidly behind you in denying there is a terrorism related threat posed by the approximately 100 nuclear reactors in the country.

In fact they work very, very, very hard and and very, very, very diligently to convince the public there is absolutely no threat posed by nuclear power whatsoever.