Obama Prods Leaders on Curbing Nuclear Terror Threat (Update1)
2010-04-12 12:32:56.340 GMT
By Viola Gienger and Roger Runningen
April 12 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama, spurred by
al-Qaeda's pursuit of a nuclear bomb and the wider use of atomic
energy, opens a summit of 47 nations today aimed at keeping the
world's plutonium and uranium out of terrorists' hands.
Obama has said he wants a pledge and a plan from the other
leaders at the two-day meeting in Washington on securing nuclear
materials within four years. To succeed, he'll have to overcome
indifference, allegations of interference, the status conferred
by atomic weapons and the financial benefits of nuclear trade,
according to analysts who follow the issue.
"When the United States first started working to secure
nuclear materials overseas, our teams of experts found highly
radioactive materials stored in open fields without any
security," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an audience
at the University of Louisville in Kentucky last week. They saw
"the ingredients for nuclear bombs warehoused in facilities
without electricity, telephones or armed guards."
The summit is the latest step in a series by Obama on one
of his foreign policy goals, laying the groundwork for someday
eliminating nuclear weapons. The meeting follows his signing of
a treaty with Russia last week to further cut their atomic
weapons and the unveiling of an administration doctrine that
reduces the role of nuclear arms in the U.S.'s defense strategy
and makes preventing nuclear terrorism a top priority.
The possibility of a terrorist group getting a nuclear
weapon is "the single biggest threat to U.S. security" in the
near and distant future, Obama said yesterday before meeting
with South African President Jacob Zuma.
"If there was ever a detonation in New York City, or
London, or Johannesburg, the ramifications economically,
politically, and from a security perspective would be
devastating," Obama said.
Bipartisan Agreement
The goal of the summit "is getting the international
community on the path in which we are locking down that nuclear
material in a very specific time frame with a specific work
plan," Obama said.
The summit also gives the president a chance to burnish his
foreign policy credentials after battles with Congress over a
health-care overhaul.
"It's one of the few things Republicans and Democrats can
share the same talking points on," said Deepti Choubey, deputy
director of nuclear policy at the Washington-based Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace. "This is all about him and
his executive authority."
The president cited nuclear terrorism as the most immediate
and extreme threat to global security in his Prague speech in
April 2009. He reiterated that in his Nuclear Posture Review
last week.
Terrorism
Terrorists "can fabricate a crude nuclear device that can
destroy an American city" with just 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of
highly enriched uranium, said Joseph Cirincione, president of
the San Francisco-based Ploughshares Fund, which finances
projects on nuclear issues. "The trick is to stop them from
getting the stuff."
Al-Qaeda, the group responsible for the Sept. 11 attack on
New York and the Pentagon, has tried repeatedly to obtain stolen
nuclear materials, said Matthew Bunn, an associate professor at
Harvard University who once worked as an adviser on U.S. nuclear
controls.
"In 2003, they were negotiating to buy what they believed
were three nuclear devices," Bunn told reporters at a briefing
last week by the Fissile Materials Working Group, independent
experts backing Obama's effort. "The United States has never
managed to identify" a Pakistani expert referenced in a message
as helping al-Qaeda, Bunn said.
Gaps in Security
Pakistan and Russia have some of the biggest risks because
of gaps in security and the potential for access by insiders who
are either corrupted or sympathetic to militant groups, he said.
Research reactors fueled by highly enriched uranium, many
housed on university campuses with minimal security, also
present a threat.
Groups that have sought nuclear weapons include the Aum
Shinrikyo cult that killed 12 people in a 1995 sarin gas attack
on the Tokyo subway, Bunn said. The United Nation's atomic-
energy agency has documented 18 cases of theft or loss of highly
enriched uranium or plutonium, not counting incidents that
individual countries haven't confirmed, he said.
Earlier this year, peace activists exposed the
vulnerabilities of stockpiles when they broke into a nuclear
weapons base in Belgium.
"The global stockpile of nuclear weapons materials is
large enough to build more than 120,000 nuclear bombs," said
Alexandra Toma, co-chairwoman of the Fissile Materials Working
Group.
Middle East
Middle Eastern nations pursuing nuclear power for energy
such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar will
add to the supply of potentially vulnerable raw materials,
specialists say.
"We're in a way returning to a sort of creeping
proliferation," said Hans Kristensen, director of the nuclear
information project at the Washington-based Federation of
American Scientists. "Once these countries start developing
nuclear power, you have a significant spread of technology and
material."
While Iran is already producing its own enriched uranium,
saying it plans to generate energy for peaceful use, U.S.
officials fear the endeavor will spur neighbors to pursue the
same goal, further destabilizing the region.
Not all countries are convinced of the danger, said former
Ambassador Gregory Schulte, who was the U.S. representative at
the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna from 2005
to 2009.
Syria constructed a reactor in the desert "and no one
notices for five years," Schulte said. Israel bombed the
reactor in September 2007.
For Related News and Information:
Top stories: TOP <GO>
Stories on Obama and terrorism: TNI EXE TERROR <GO>
Top government stories: TOP GOV <GO>
--Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Brigitte Greenberg.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Viola Gienger in Washington at +1-202-624-1990 or
vgienger@bloomberg.net;
Roger Runningen in Washington at +1-202-624-1884 or
rrunningen@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jim Kirk at +1-202-654-4315 or
jkirk12@bloomberg.ne
2010-04-12 12:32:56.340 GMT
By Viola Gienger and Roger Runningen
April 12 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama, spurred by
al-Qaeda's pursuit of a nuclear bomb and the wider use of atomic
energy, opens a summit of 47 nations today aimed at keeping the
world's plutonium and uranium out of terrorists' hands.
Obama has said he wants a pledge and a plan from the other
leaders at the two-day meeting in Washington on securing nuclear
materials within four years. To succeed, he'll have to overcome
indifference, allegations of interference, the status conferred
by atomic weapons and the financial benefits of nuclear trade,
according to analysts who follow the issue.
"When the United States first started working to secure
nuclear materials overseas, our teams of experts found highly
radioactive materials stored in open fields without any
security," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an audience
at the University of Louisville in Kentucky last week. They saw
"the ingredients for nuclear bombs warehoused in facilities
without electricity, telephones or armed guards."
The summit is the latest step in a series by Obama on one
of his foreign policy goals, laying the groundwork for someday
eliminating nuclear weapons. The meeting follows his signing of
a treaty with Russia last week to further cut their atomic
weapons and the unveiling of an administration doctrine that
reduces the role of nuclear arms in the U.S.'s defense strategy
and makes preventing nuclear terrorism a top priority.
The possibility of a terrorist group getting a nuclear
weapon is "the single biggest threat to U.S. security" in the
near and distant future, Obama said yesterday before meeting
with South African President Jacob Zuma.
"If there was ever a detonation in New York City, or
London, or Johannesburg, the ramifications economically,
politically, and from a security perspective would be
devastating," Obama said.
Bipartisan Agreement
The goal of the summit "is getting the international
community on the path in which we are locking down that nuclear
material in a very specific time frame with a specific work
plan," Obama said.
The summit also gives the president a chance to burnish his
foreign policy credentials after battles with Congress over a
health-care overhaul.
"It's one of the few things Republicans and Democrats can
share the same talking points on," said Deepti Choubey, deputy
director of nuclear policy at the Washington-based Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace. "This is all about him and
his executive authority."
The president cited nuclear terrorism as the most immediate
and extreme threat to global security in his Prague speech in
April 2009. He reiterated that in his Nuclear Posture Review
last week.
Terrorism
Terrorists "can fabricate a crude nuclear device that can
destroy an American city" with just 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of
highly enriched uranium, said Joseph Cirincione, president of
the San Francisco-based Ploughshares Fund, which finances
projects on nuclear issues. "The trick is to stop them from
getting the stuff."
Al-Qaeda, the group responsible for the Sept. 11 attack on
New York and the Pentagon, has tried repeatedly to obtain stolen
nuclear materials, said Matthew Bunn, an associate professor at
Harvard University who once worked as an adviser on U.S. nuclear
controls.
"In 2003, they were negotiating to buy what they believed
were three nuclear devices," Bunn told reporters at a briefing
last week by the Fissile Materials Working Group, independent
experts backing Obama's effort. "The United States has never
managed to identify" a Pakistani expert referenced in a message
as helping al-Qaeda, Bunn said.
Gaps in Security
Pakistan and Russia have some of the biggest risks because
of gaps in security and the potential for access by insiders who
are either corrupted or sympathetic to militant groups, he said.
Research reactors fueled by highly enriched uranium, many
housed on university campuses with minimal security, also
present a threat.
Groups that have sought nuclear weapons include the Aum
Shinrikyo cult that killed 12 people in a 1995 sarin gas attack
on the Tokyo subway, Bunn said. The United Nation's atomic-
energy agency has documented 18 cases of theft or loss of highly
enriched uranium or plutonium, not counting incidents that
individual countries haven't confirmed, he said.
Earlier this year, peace activists exposed the
vulnerabilities of stockpiles when they broke into a nuclear
weapons base in Belgium.
"The global stockpile of nuclear weapons materials is
large enough to build more than 120,000 nuclear bombs," said
Alexandra Toma, co-chairwoman of the Fissile Materials Working
Group.
Middle East
Middle Eastern nations pursuing nuclear power for energy
such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar will
add to the supply of potentially vulnerable raw materials,
specialists say.
"We're in a way returning to a sort of creeping
proliferation," said Hans Kristensen, director of the nuclear
information project at the Washington-based Federation of
American Scientists. "Once these countries start developing
nuclear power, you have a significant spread of technology and
material."
While Iran is already producing its own enriched uranium,
saying it plans to generate energy for peaceful use, U.S.
officials fear the endeavor will spur neighbors to pursue the
same goal, further destabilizing the region.
Not all countries are convinced of the danger, said former
Ambassador Gregory Schulte, who was the U.S. representative at
the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna from 2005
to 2009.
Syria constructed a reactor in the desert "and no one
notices for five years," Schulte said. Israel bombed the
reactor in September 2007.
For Related News and Information:
Top stories: TOP <GO>
Stories on Obama and terrorism: TNI EXE TERROR <GO>
Top government stories: TOP GOV <GO>
--Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Brigitte Greenberg.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Viola Gienger in Washington at +1-202-624-1990 or
vgienger@bloomberg.net;
Roger Runningen in Washington at +1-202-624-1884 or
rrunningen@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jim Kirk at +1-202-654-4315 or
jkirk12@bloomberg.ne
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