Reduce the civilian use of HEU now
Highly enriched uranium (HEU) is usually regarded as the fissile material most desirable to terrorists, given the relative ease with which it could be used to manufacture a simple nuclear explosive...
View ArticlePreventing nuclear terrorism
The television drama 24 is currently portraying one of the most frightening and dangerous terrorist scenarios possible--an anti-American terrorist group with radioactive fissile materials intent on...
View ArticleThis is the year for nuclear material security
A few weeks ago, an anti-nuclear group breached security fencing at the Kleine Brogel Air Base in Belgium. Undetected, the group spent more than an hour on a military base where U.S. nuclear weapons...
View ArticlePrioritizing investment in nuclear security education
To a large degree, the implementation of robust nuclear security depends on the availability of qualified and dedicated specialists. Unfortunately, such nuclear security specialists are in short supply...
View ArticleDeconstructing U.S. funding for nuclear material security
One year ago, President Barack Obama made a bold pledge to "secure all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world within four years." His immediate follow-through, however, has been wanting. For...
View ArticleStrengthening nuclear security: The legal agenda
President Barack Obama's upcoming Nuclear Security Summit has the potential to become a defining moment for international security in the twenty-first century, especially after the recent release of...
View ArticleWhat is nuclear security worth in 2011?
If the car bomb in Times Square contained just one of the tens of thousands of radioactive sources that exist in the U.S. and it had successfully detonated, this American landmark would be...
View ArticleSetback for WMD security
When the Group of Eight (G-8) last gathered in Canada in 2002, the summit meeting was an unarguable success for the future of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) security. The leaders launched a...
View ArticleCongress's nuclear terrorism shortfall
The US National Security Strategy, released by the White House in May 2010, states that "there is no greater threat to the American people than weapons of mass destruction, particularly the danger...
View ArticlePromises, promises: A progress report one year after the 2010 Nuclear...
Two years ago in Prague, President Barack Obama laid out his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. Recognizing that this would not likely be achieved in his lifetime, he outlined practical steps...
View ArticleAfter bin Laden: Nuclear terrorism still a top threat
Osama bin Laden's death may represent a significant turning point in the US effort to defeat Al Qaeda, but the threat of nuclear terrorism will not lessen in the wake of his demise. Such threats,...
View ArticleNuclear materials security: Cooperation is key
As South Korea prepares for the second Nuclear Security Summit, scheduled to take place in Seoul next March, the momentum for collective international action on nuclear terrorism must be sustained. In...
View ArticleChinese nuclear security practices
The 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC, was a milestone for nuclear security. Political leaders from 47 countries, including the United States, and multilateral organizations gathered to...
View ArticleRegime change for nuclear security
Almost no country in the world would refuse an invitation to join a collective declaration acknowledging nuclear terrorism as one of the most challenging threats to global security. However, defining a...
View ArticleTwo treaties. One Congress. No time to wait.
While Washington, DC, is paralyzed by partisanship on most topics, there is one issue that commands overwhelming bipartisan agreement: the threat posed to US national security by nuclear terrorism.
View ArticleLibya, Belarus, and dealing with dictators
Dealing with thuggish dictators reluctant to relinquish their stockpiles of highly enriched uranium (HEU) is a necessary component in the global effort to secure vulnerable fissile materials by 2013....
View ArticleWhy the Conference on Disarmament still matters
It has expanded from 10 member countries to 65, negotiated seven international nonproliferation and disarmament treaties, and next March turns 52 years old. It is the Conference on Disarmament (CD) --...
View ArticleRadiological materials and the Nuclear Security Summit
With the second Nuclear Security Summit fast approaching, it is a good moment to reflect on one of the new issues with which the Seoul summit will attempt to grapple: radiological security. The first...
View ArticleInvoluntary response
Earlier this month, widespread inaction on the increasing dangers posed by nuclear proliferation and climate change forced the Bulletin's Doomsday Clock to move one minute closer to midnight,...
View ArticleWhy Latin America matters at the Nuclear Security Summit
It is a fact that nuclear terrorism is a global threat and has become a worldwide concern. But what is particularly frightening is that there is no clearly defined plan for securing all nuclear...
View ArticleSeoul purpose
In April 2010, representatives from 47 countries and three international organizations gathered in Washington, DC, for the first Nuclear Security Summit, an international effort created to strengthen...
View ArticleCould less be more?
The outcome of the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit left a lot to be desired, and much remains to be done to minimize the nuclear and radiological terrorism risk.
View ArticleNuclear security's top priority
In the past two decades, at least two terrorist groups have made serious attempts at obtaining nuclear weapons or the nuclear material needed to make them. They won't be the last. Foiling terrorists...
View ArticleAustralia's nuclear dilemma
"What will make a focus on nuclear security a permanent feature of what we do?" asked Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit held in Seoul in late March. Experts...
View ArticleThe oversight imperative
The prevention of nuclear terrorism, one of the foremost international security threats that we face today, relies on separate national regulations with little oversight. There are few international...
View ArticleSecurity at Y-12 nun too good
In the early hours of July 28, Megan Rice, the now-famous 82-year-old nun and activist, and her accomplices -- Greg Boertje-Obed, a 57-year-old housepainter and veteran, and Michael Walli, a...
View ArticleRevisiting radioactive source security
The possibility of radioactive material falling into the hands of criminal organizations or terrorists remains a real and persistent security threat. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)...
View ArticleUncooperative threat reduction
For more than two decades, the United States and Russia have worked together to secure Soviet stockpiles of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and materials, but now the future of this...
View ArticleA threat that demands action
For years, American politicians on both sides of the aisle have agreed that nuclear terrorism is one of the most serious national security threats the United States faces. In 2013, President Obama must...
View ArticleHow to safeguard loose nukes
Four years ago, President Barack Obama called preventing nuclear terrorism a top security priority. But even though he said in his State of the Union speech last week that Washington "would continue...
View ArticleNonproliferation in a time of austerity
Since the early 1990s, the nonproliferation community has obsessed over the annual appropriations to programs at the US defense, state, and energy departments that are designed to keep weapons of mass...
View ArticleHow do you solve a problem like plutonium?
Four years ago in Prague, President Barack Obama focused the world's attention on a "strange turn of history:" Even as the danger of global nuclear war has lessened, the threat we face from nuclear...
View ArticleUS budget cuts threaten nuclear safety
On May 20, the US House of Representatives approved legislation that would implement two major international nuclear security accords. The move should be cause for celebration among those fighting the...
View ArticleThe future of nuclear security
Language Undefined Gaps in international law and inconsistent security measures leave radioactive materials and facilities around the world vulnerable to misuse, sabotage, and theft by would-be...
View ArticleWhen meetings aren't enough
Language Undefined In a wide-ranging speech delivered in June at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, US President Barack Obama said that "complacency is not the character of great nations." In the same speech,...
View ArticleAn HEU milestone means a new challenge ahead
Language Undefined Thirty-five years ago, Washington launched a program to minimize the civilian use of highly enriched uranium (HEU)—a terrorist’s material of choice for constructing nuclear weapons....
View ArticleVoluntary regimes can advance nuclear security
Language Undefined International organizations and heads of state have gathered twice since 2010 to tackle the problem of nuclear security, working to prevent the theft, sabotage, and illegal transfer...
View ArticleNuclear-security lessons from Australia
Language English No country can afford to be complacent about nuclear and radiological terrorism. Even countries with little or no nuclear infrastructure could fall victim to groups that have procured...
View ArticleFor nuclear security, good intentions are not enough
Language English In March, world leaders will gather in The Hague for the third Nuclear Security Summit, with the goal of reducing the threat of nuclear terrorism. Since the last summit, which took...
View ArticleBrussels steps up as a leader in nuclear and radiological security
Language Undefined The United States has historically set the pace in global security where it comes to chemical, biological, nuclear, and radiological (CBRN) threats by promoting cooperative...
View ArticleA race to the top in nuclear security strategy
Language Undefined The possibility of a nuclear terrorist attack has been called a black swan occurrence, an unlikely but possible event that is the national security nightmare that keeps President...
View ArticleRepublicans budget more for nonproliferation than Obama
Language English In March of this year, US President Barack Obama told a group of campaign donors that “loose nukes” were the main thing keeping him up at night. This sentiment is consistent with his...
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