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 (see Russia's Nuclear and Missile 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, and the world has to confront the very real possibility that some of this material may already 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.
For related materials please see
"Mock Terrorists Breached Security at Weapons Plants" Chicago Tribune, 5 October 2001
"Toward a New Security Framework" Remarks by Sam Nunn, Co-Chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, at the Woodrow Wilson Center, 3 October 2001 (pdf).
Nuclear Status Report: Nuclear Weapons, Fissile Material, and Export Controls in the Former Soviet Union, Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2001