After the anthrax attacks, nuclear terrorism is not out of the question

By Jon Wolfsthal

October 16, 2001

WASHINGTON -- An internal government report, obtained by an outside watch dog group, reveals that America's 10 nuclear weapons research and production facilities are vulnerable to terrorist attack and have failed about half of recent security drills. In several cases, commando squads were able to capture enough nuclear materials to make nuclear weapons.

If this report scares you, then just imagine how much worse things are in Russia, with its huge and under-funded nuclear weapons complex.

The former Soviet Union produced over 1,300 tons of nuclear weapons-grade plutonium and uranium, most of which is now vulnerable to theft or diversion. Only a few kilograms are needed to produce even a crude nuclear weapon.

Of even greater concern is the fact that Russia itself doesn't even know how much material it produced or where all of its is. In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the world has to confront the very real possibility that some of this material already may be missing. We know that terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda, have shown interested in getting such material from Russia in the past.

U.S. programs designed to secure Russian nuclear weapons, materials and technology have made significant progress, despite having come under recent funding pressures and skepticism by the Bush administration and Congress. The attack of September 11 appears to have refocused U.S. attention on the need to prevent other countries or terrorist groups from seizing this material.

Obviously, U.S. facilities need to have the best possible security, and additional resources and attention should be applied. But the more likely scenario -- that Russian material will be seized and used against U.S. territory or allies -- should be given increased funding and attention as well. How much of the administrations $40 billion anti-terror package will be applied to these threats remains to be seen.

Jon Wolfsthal is an associate in the Non-Proliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.