More security needed around nuclear material

Apr 9, 2016Initiative

(April 11st, 2016 ) The terrorists in Brussels had been trailing a senior Belgian nuclear official. The strong implication is that ISIS would be pleased to stage an attack with nuclear material – perhaps not a nuclear explosion itself,  but rather they would  use radioactive  material with conventional explosives to spread terror and chaos via a “dirty bomb.’’.

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Nuclear power plant in Tihange, Belgium.

Far too little is being done at many facilities around the world to secure nuclear material.

As this New York Times piece notes, a key nuclear-security treaty fails even to order the arming of guards who monitor bomb-grade nuclear material!

G7 Summit leaders presumably will discuss this potentially catastrophic terrorism when they meet in Japan on May 26-27. The Boston Global Forum hopes that the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, a network of 86 states and five international organizations, encourages its members to share intelligence and best security practices regarding the storage of nuclear material.