The Real Threat of NuclearSmuggling
This reading was based on the controversy over the
threat that nuclear smuggling poses. It begins by going
over the view of each side in a brief manner. It states
that some analysts dismiss it as a minor nuisance while
others find the danger to be very real and probable.
This reading stands mainly for the belief that nuclear
smuggling is a real danger. The analysts that find this
issue to be a problem say that nuclear smuggling presents
grave and serious because even though the percent of
these type of smuggling is less than that of drugs for
example, the law-enforcement type officials are also less
experienced at stopping shipments of an item such as
uranium than they are in seizing marijuana or hashish.
These same analysts have also found that even a small
leakage rate of any type of nuclear material can have
extremely vast consequences and dangers.
They say that
although secrecy rules make precise numbers impossible to
get, Thomas B. Cochran of the Natural Resources Defense
Council in Washington, D.C., estimates that a bomb
requires between three and 25 kilograms of enriched
uranium or between one and eight kilograms of plutonium.
A Kilogram of plutonium occupies about 50.4 cubic
centimeters, or one seventh the volume of a standard
aluminum soft-drink can.
In addition to this, analysts have found that
security is much to lax in even the supposedly 'most
protected locations'. For example, the Russian stores in
particular suffer from sloppy security, poor inventory
management and inadequate measurements. Then there is the
virtually nonexistent security at nuclear installations
that compounds the problem. The main reason for this
lack of security is that pay and conditions have worsened
and disaffection has become widespread. So with an
alienated workforce suffering from low...
Nice
Very well written paper, although a bit short, i liked it and felt as if you did a very good job explaining The Threat of Nuclear Smuggling.
Thank you
Kevin
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