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Nuclear terrorism threat to the continental U.S. 'real and growing'

Friday, October 3, 2008 Free Headline Alerts

Geostrategy-Direct.com

The threat of a nuclear attack by terrorists against the United States is complicated by a decreasing number of nuclear experts, a senior Homeland Security official said last week.

Vayl Oxford, director of domestic nuclear detection at DHS, told a senate hearing on the danger posed by terrorists attempting to smuggle a nuclear device into the country. Specialists said that Al Qaida has sought to buy or develop nuclear devices and the fear is that the group will detonate a nuclear bomb in a U.S. city, killing hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions.

“The nuclear threat is real and growing,” Mr. Oxford said. “The United States has a comprehensive strategy in place to put together a layered defense to combat this threat that includes several key factors. We've increased intelligence collection and analysis against the threat. We have a focused interdiction program against illicit trafficking of nuclear materials and expertise. We're working to prevent the import into and use of nuclear weapons and materials against the U.S.”

Additional steps are being taken to improve the ability to trace and deter nuclear weapons use, as well as increasing the focus on responding and recovering capabilities in the aftermath of an attack, he said.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing was called to examine two programs aimed at stopping nuclear terrorism: Advanced Spectroscopic Portal monitors, or ASP, and the Cargo Automated Advanced Radiography System, or CAARS.

Oxford said one “impending crisis” in countering nuclear terrorism is the loss of nuclear specialists. He said “nuclear expertise that is rapidly dwindling across our entire complex.”

“We are losing nuclear engineers. We're losing nuclear weapons designers across the complex as the support for the nuclear weapons program goes down,” he said.

The U.S. nuclear complex is shifting from an offensive mission of designing and manufacturing nuclear weapons to a defensive posture to counter nuclear threats. “We need about 100 Ph.D.s per year coming out of our colleges and universities to reinvigorate that complex so we can take on the kind of challenges that you're asking about,” he said.

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