The nuclear threat is a global challenge that requires a comprehensive approach, including offensive action against terrorists and defensive steps such as nuclear material detection at borders. However, these efforts are weak reeds upon which to rely, as the most important step in stopping nuclear terrorism is to prevent weapons-usable nuclear materials from leaving their sites.
The most serious risk to the United States is that terrorists may acquire enough fissile material to make a bomb. To produce such a weapon, terrorists must have access to nuclear reactors with reprocessing plants or uranium enrichment facilities, as well as facilities to provide fuel for those reactors. To deliver a bomb, terrorists must also have long-range delivery systems such as intercontinental or submarine-launched ballistic missiles. In addition to nuclear bombs, a terrorist attack could also use shorter-range tactical nuclear weapons, such as nuclear artillery and atomic depth charges.
For terrorists to successfully carry out a nuclear event, they must succeed at every step along the pathway: obtaining or stealing weapons-usable material; fabricating and testing a device; using it in an attack; and managing the consequences of an event. Compared to the resources a nation devotes to its military and diplomacy, the U.S. investment in cooperative efforts to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction is relatively modest: less than $1 billion a year, or about one-quarter of 1 percent of the U.S. defense budget.
Despite this, progress toward the goal of a nuclear-free world has been slow. In the United States, disagreements over exempting foreign assistance from taxes, contracting procedures, and liability in the case of accidents or deliberate sabotage have delayed some cooperative projects. In the world, complacency and insufficient resources have slowed the effort to secure nuclear material at vulnerable sites and to improve security where it remains.
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