Intelligence and the prevention of nuclear terrorism

The paper first defines intelligence and nuclear terrorism and analyzes the nature of the problem from both a specifically US and a more generally Western viewpoint. As used here, intelligence refers broadly to the collection and reporting of information, the production of assessments, and the presentation of judgments by intelligence specialists who work for public and national security authorities. Intelligence encompasses the entire range of investigative and reporting activities at all levels of government - from local police units to allied military commands - that could contribute to the discovery and disarming of nuclear terrorists. Nuclear terrorism, in contrast, refers only to credible threats or acts of extreme violence by forces outside the direct control of any state through false threats or actual use of a nuclear bomb. This definition excludes other highly menacing or damaging activities involving nuclear materials, facilities, weapons, or phobias such as poisoning the air or water supplies with radioactive substances; stealing nuclear materials, sabotaging nuclear powerplants, occupying a facility or seizing a vehicle with nuclear weapons, or inflaming public fears in the event of a nuclear accident. These events can be extremely frightening, as in the case of public reactions throughout Europe to the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. However, their potential destructiveness and exploitability by terrorists do not match the threat of nuclear explosion