Agence France-Presse,
Vienna (AFP): A new study said Russia and Pakistan were particularly vulnerable to nuclear theft and more could and should be done worldwide to prevent nuclear weapons and materials from falling into “terrorist” hands.
The report, commissioned by the US-run Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and published Wednesday, found that “the threat of nuclear theft and terrorism remains high in many parts of the world.”
But “it appears that the highest risks of nuclear theft today are in Russia, Pakistan and at HEU-fuelled (highly-enriched uranium) research reactors,” the report's author, Matthew Bunn, wrote.
“We urgently need a stepped-up global campaign to secure every nuclear weapon and every significant cache of potential nuclear bomb material worldwide to stringent standards,” Bunn said.
Nuclear security in Russia had improved dramatically since the mid-1990s, the report found.
“But real risks remain,” Bunn warned.
“Russia has the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons and materials, and remains the only state in the world where authorities have confirmed that terrorists have been carrying out reconnaissance at nuclear warhead storage sites,” he said.
Pakistan's nuclear stockpiles, for their part, were comparatively small.
But serving military officers in Pakistan cooperated with al-Qaeda in two plots to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf, “raising questions about the reliability of the military officers who guard the country's nuclear stockpile,” Bunn said.
Also alarming was lax security at many HEU research reactors, he complained.
Highly-enriched uranium is used to make atom bombs.
Many nuclear facilities had “no more than a night watchman and a chain-link fence” for security, he complained.
Security updates at been completed at around 80 percent of the more than 140 HEU-fueled research reactors around the world to bring them into line with security recommendations drawn up the UN's Vienna-based nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“But only a small percentage have security upgrades adequate to protect against demonstrated terrorist and criminal capabilities,” Bunn found.
Indeed, it was “remarkable” that neither the US government nor the IAEA had “a comprehensive, prioritized list assessing which facilities around the world pose the most serious risks of nuclear theft,” he continued.
“Such a prioritized assessment should be prepared urgently and updated regularly,” the report argued.
Among the report's other recommendations, Bunn urged world leaders to launch a global campaign to reduce the risk of nuclear terrorism, including the expansion of the mission, personnel and funding of the IAEA's Office of Nuclear Security.
The NTI is co-chaired by media mogul Ted Turner and former US senator Sam Nunn.
