President Obama's Nuclear Security Summit: The Essential Background
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Video: What is a Nuclear Bomb?
President Obama will host the first ever Nuclear Security Summit on April 12–13, where nearly 40 heads of state will join him for two days focusing on one issue: how to secure all nuclear weapons and all weapons-usable material worldwide to a gold standard -- beyond the reach of terrorists or thieves.
President Obama has labeled nuclear terrorism "a threat that rises above all others in urgency" and announced an ambitious goal of securing all nuclear material within four years.
Ahead of the summit, we have put together this list of key facts and figures about nuclear security and terrorists' attempts to acquire nuclear materials.
Securing the Bomb 2010
By Matthew Bunn, Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom
Prof. Bunn provides a comprehensive assessment of global efforts to secure and consolidate nuclear stockpiles, and a detailed action plan for securing all nuclear materials in four years.
Also:
President Obama's Nuclear Summit: Q&A with Professor Graham Allison
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Belfer Center Director Graham Allison provides answers to key questions about the Nuclear Security Summit.
AP Photo
Nuclear Terrorism Fact Sheet
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
This nuclear terrorism fact sheet answers the key questions surrounding the issue, including how much highly enriched uranium it would take to make a nuclear device (25 kg). It details recent instances of stolen nuclear materials and break-ins at nuclear facilities.
Nuclear Terrorism Threat Assessment
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Prof. Allison's presentation answers five key questions about the severity of the threat of nuclear terrorism.
AP Photo
Nuclear Security
By Mohamed ElBaradei, Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and Ernesto Zedillo
The nearly 40 heads of state who will assemble in Washington this week for the world's first Nuclear Security Summit should focus like a laser beam on the biggest potential threat to civilization.
Al Qaeda Weapons of Mass Destruction Threat: Hype or Reality?
By Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
A vivid timeline of al Qaeda's attempts to acquire weapons of mass destruction (WMD), written by the former head of the CIA's terrorism and WMD efforts.
Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Prof. Graham Allison's highly readable book, Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe, lays out the "who, what, where, when and how" of a nuclear terrorist strike and thus delineates the urgent challenge we face.
Key Takeaways from Report of the Congressionally-established Bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
The Commission concluded that "unless the world community acts decisively and with greater urgency, it is more likely than not a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013."
AP Photo
Nuclear Power Without Nuclear Proliferation?
By Steven E. Miller, Director, International Security Program and Scott Sagan, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1981-1982
Miller and Sagan examine the expansion of nuclear power and its implications for nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism.
U.S. NNSA
Securing Nuclear Stockpiles in Four Years — Budget and Policy Requirements
By Matthew Bunn, Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom
Prof. Bunn's presentation to congressional staffers suggested steps lawmakers could take to help achieve President Obama's objective of securing all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world in 4 years.
AP Photo
A Call for German Leadership in Combating Nuclear Terrorism
By Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Tom Bielefeld, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom
Germany has an opportunity at the Washington summit — and thereafter — to step up and lend non-American leadership to the problem of nuclear terrorism.
AP Photo
A Failure to Imagine the Worst
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Prof. Allison's Foreign Policy article draws parallels between the "failure of imagination" leading up to the 9/11 attacks and today's risk of nuclear terrorism.
AP Photo
Nuclear Disorder: Surveying Atomic Threats
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
In a lead article from the January/February issue of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Allison asks whether the current global nuclear order could be as fragile today as the global financial order was two years ago.
How to Keep the Bomb From Terrorists
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Prof. Allison argues that the only thing that can keep nuclear bombs out of the hands of terrorists is a brand-new science of nuclear forensics.
