Terrorists may get nuclear 'free agents'
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Destitute Russian nuclear specialists could easily be hired by terrorist groups now that a U.S.-Russian partnership is set to expire, a watchdog group says.
The 1998 Nuclear Cities Initiative, which offers opportunities to impoverished specialists living in remote former-Soviet "science cities," is set to expire Friday.
"If we eliminate this program we will be losing a major nonproliferation agreement," says Kenneth Luongo, executive director of the Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council, a nuclear nonproliferation group in Washington.
The United States and Russia are not planning to maintain the program, even with the threat of nuclear terrorism looming large, The Christian Science Monitor reports.
What else does Luongo say?
2001 transcript from PBS's RISK ASSESSMENT: RUSSIA
KENNETH LUONGO: I've seen highly enriched uranium in a tube that would fit in a briefcase inside the equivalent of a gym locker with two strings and a wax seal.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Is that enough to make a bomb?
KENNETH LUONGO: It's enough to do serious damage, just sitting there behind a huge vault door that had a lock that could be opened with a skeleton key.
I guess the U.S and Russia balks and security walks...
Labels: American Hiroshima, Nuclear Terrorism, Nuclear Threat, Terrorism
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