Global Jihad: temi, piste di diffusione e il fenomeno del reducismo ...

classified literature, could possibly design and build a crude nuclear device.” 168 In
1987, a group of former weapons designers calculated that “the number of specialists
required [to construct a crude nuclear weapon]…could be scarcely fewer than three
or four and might as well be more.” 169
The manufacture of a radiological weapon is vastly less complicated than the
assembly of a nuclear explosive device, and may be well within a terrorist groups
capability,
although the handling and dispersion of highly radioactive materials
poses health and safety challenges that a terrorist group might not wish to risk for
fear of incapacitation or discovery. The quantity of radioactive materials needed for a
dispersal device is substantially less than the amount of plutonium
needed to build
an explosive device. Nor would the terrorist group be limited to plutonium or HEU
for
source materials; any highly radioactive substance could cause contamination
and necessitate an expensive clean up if dispersed effectively. 170
Section 1 Conclusion
The lesson from this section is that ultimately the threat posed by NR terrorism can
only be gauged by looking at the convergence of the individual elements involved.
The intent and willingness of a terrorist organisation to perpetrate a nuclear or
radiological attack is equally as important as the means by which they can obtain the
technologies, materials and knowledge to do so.
The means (or “supply-side”) by which terrorists can access potentially dangerous
substances are becoming more numerous and the danger is real as
shown by the rise
168 Office of Technology Assessment, Nuclear Proliferation and Safeguards (New York: Praeger Press, 1997), p141
169 Carson, M.J., Taylor, T et al, “Can Terrorists Build a Nuclear Weapon?” in Leventhal and Alexander, Preventing
Nuclear Terrorism (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1987), p58
170 NTI, Introduction to Radiological Terrorism, Nuclear Threat Initiative, [Online]
http://www.nti.org/h_learnmore/radtutorial/ [Last Accessed 17/04/04]
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