Keeping Nukes Out of the Wrong Hands

The presence of nuclear weapons around the world is the greatest threat to America today. A growing, bipartisan consensus of military leaders and national security experts supports a smart, new plan to stop their spread and reduce their number. America needs a principled national security strategy focused on keeping our military strong and our nation safe.

On April 12- 13 President Obama will lead a global nuclear security summit with 43 other heads of state. The goal is to have world leaders focus on securing vulnerable nuclear materials, and keeping these materials and nuclear technology out of the hands of terrorist or rogue regimes. Among the nations that are expected to attend are China, India, Pakistan, Israel and Russia.

The purpose of the two day global nuclear security summit is to develop a plan of action to secure vulnerable nuclear materials, prevent nuclear material smuggling, and deter, detect and disrupt attempts at nuclear terrorism. The hope during the summit is that world leaders will agree on the severity of the nuclear terrorism problem and propose practical (and innovative) solutions. President Obama�s 2011 budget has allocated $320 million to support a four year international effort to secure all vulnerable materials worldwide.

The summit is expected to strengthen existing international initiatives that curb the spread of nuclear materials like the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, the G8 Global Partnership against Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, and the Proliferation Security Initiative. A successful summit will pave the way for longer-term goals such as the creation of a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, which would limit future production of the nuclear materials necessary to build nuclear weapons.

The Fissile Materials Working Group is convening a parallel summit on April 12 to bring together leading international experts on fissile materials/nuclear terrorism, nuclear industry representatives, the media and other relevant parties. This summit, entitled �Next Generation Nuclear Security: Meeting the Global Challenge,� will serve as an opportunity to provide context for the issues being addressed at the official summit and it will provide analysis, education, and policy recommendations that highlight the urgency of this agenda. The event will have an impact by drawing increased media attention and additional stakeholders from around the globe into the nuclear material security discussion. In fact, by providing a broader platform for policy discussion by international experts and officials, the summit will underscore the importance of the official summit and its results.

What sort of nuclear materials are we talking about, where is it and how is it typically secured? How easy is it to obtain this material on the black market? What is the likelihood a terrorist group could create and detonate an improvised nuclear device? Why should countries other than those in the West be concerned about this problem? What impact would a nuclear terrorist attack have on the United States and the rest of the world? What might President Obama�s summit actually accomplish? What else does the United States need to do to demonstrate leadership on this issue?