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28 July 2006

Comprehensive Strategy Required To Thwart Nuclear Terrorism

No single solution to threat, Energy Department official says

Washington -- There is no single solution to the problem of keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists, an Energy Department official says.

A successful strategy to this threat includes a wide range of initiatives and capabilities, supported by research and development, according to Steven Aoki.  The deputy under secretary of energy for counterterrorism, Aoki testified July 27 before the Senate Judiciary's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security.

Detection of plutonium and highly enriched uranium -- essential components of nuclear weapons -- by associated radioactivity is not a universal solution, Aoki said.  It is, instead, he said, just one tool in a broad array of activities, capabilities, and systems needed for a national strategy to combat nuclear terrorism.  (See related article.)

Aoki said the threat could come in one of three ways:

Terrorists could acquire radioactive material and construct dispersal devices colloquially called "dirty bombs," which have relatively low explosive power but could disperse highly radioactive material across a section of a city.

Terrorists could acquire plutonium or highly enriched uranium (HEU) and use it to build an improvised nuclear device of a few kilotons of nuclear explosive power.

And finally, terrorists could acquire a very small nuclear weapon from a nuclear-armed state.

COUNTERMEASURES

Given these possibilities, Aoki said, U.S. policy is focused on preventing the acquisition of nuclear weapons and special nuclear materials and deterrence of potential threats. The policy also includes identifying and tracing the source of nuclear devices and preparing a response to a possible radioactive attack.

"We continue to believe that keeping nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists and, where possible, eliminating potentially vulnerable weapons-usable materials is the most effective means of prevention," Aoki said.

To that end, Aoki said the United States aims to strengthen the physical security of U.S. nuclear weapons and weapons-usable materials; help Russia to strengthen the protection, control, and accounting of its plutonium and HEU; work with friends and allies to secure plutonium and HEU; and to strengthen security at civil nuclear facilities worldwide. The United States also is taking more aggressive steps to interdict commerce in plutonium and HEU and nuclear technologies.

As for deterrence, Aoki said that if terrorists realize it will be very risky, or impossible, to acquire nuclear weapons or materials, they might seek other, less devastating, avenues of attack."  Also, he said, a state sponsor of terrorism seeking to execute a covert nuclear attack or provide a nuclear weapon to a terrorist group might be deterred if it believes the United States possesses a reliable capability to trace such devices to their source and the will to retaliate against both the state sponsor and the terrorists.

See also the transcript of Aoki's statement.

For further information about U.S. policy, see Response to Terrorism and Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)