More than 20 nations are unprepared to defend against cyber and physical attacks on their nuclear infrastructure, according to a Thursday report published by the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
“The current global nuclear security system has dangerous gaps that prevent it from being truly comprehensive and effective,” said NTI President Joan Rohlfing. “Until those gaps are closed, terrorists will seek to exploit them.”
The report notes that 24 countries account for 2,000 metric tons of weapons-usable nuclear material, while an additional 23 have nuclear facilities without weapons-usable material. “Enough highly enriched uranium to fill a five-pound bag of sugar or a quantity of plutonium the size of a grapefruit is all terrorists would need to build and detonate a weapon,” it adds.
The nine nuclear-armed powers — China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — account for more than 98.5 percent of weapons-usable nuclear material. North Korea ranked the least-prepared (24 out of 24) to prevent theft of that material, followed by Pakistan (22) and India (21).
In all, 20 nations received an overall security score of zero. Thirteen received the maximum: Australia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, Finland, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, Taiwan, the U.K. and the U.S.
The report added that even more countries are seeking to develop nuclear power, even though they lack the ability to defend it against emerging threats such as cyberattacks.
“Cyberattacks are increasing,” the authors note, “and a growing number of states are exploring nuclear energy even though they lack the legal, regulatory and security frameworks to ensure that their facilities are secure as well as safe.”
“It’s a troubling development at a time of escalating and evolving threats from sophisticated and well-financed terrorist organizations, from nuclear smugglers, and from hackers capable of launching devastating cyberattacks at nuclear facilities,” the authors summarize.
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The report precedes the fourth Nuclear Security Summit, to be held in Washington at the end of March. World leaders will convene at the summit to discuss the prevention of nuclear terrorism.
