Our nation’s major metropolitan areas have detailed community response plans for hurricanes, forest fires, and other natural disasters. But in my decades in the field, I have noticed a worrisome gap: pre-disaster community planning for a nuclear event such as a terrorist plot.

In 2010, President Barack Obama told the 47-country Nuclear Security Summit, “Two decades after the end of the Cold War, we face a cruel irony of history — the risk of a nuclear confrontation between nations has gone down, but the risk of nuclear attack has gone up.” A May 17, 2026, UN News article by Conor Lennon concurs, stating that the threat of nuclear terrorism is higher than ever.