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This study responds to a congressional mandate in the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act, which calls for the National Academies to address the adequacy of strategies to prevent, counter, and respond to WMD terrorism, and identify technical, policy, and resource gaps. The nuclear threats assessment encompasses state-sponsored and non-state actors from acquiring or misusing the technologies, materials, and critical expertise needed to carry out nuclear attacks, including dual-use technologies, materials, and expertise. The nuclear threats study will result in a report with consensus findings and recommendations to advise Congress, Department of Defense, National Nuclear Security Administration, and other relevant agencies.
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Consensus
·2024
For nearly eight decades, the world has been navigating the dangers of the nuclear age. Despite Cold War tensions and the rise of global terrorism, nuclear weapons have not been used in conflict since Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Efforts such as strategic deterrence, arms control and non-prolifer...
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Description
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) will appoint an ad hoc topical committee to address specific issues related to nuclear terrorism threats. This committee will address the adequacy of strategies to prevent, counter, and respond to nuclear terrorism, and identify technical, policy, and resource gaps with respect to:
(1) identifying national and international nuclear risks, and critical emerging threats;
(2) preventing state-sponsored and non-state actors from acquiring or misusing the technologies, materials, and critical expertise needed to carry out nuclear attacks, including dual-use technologies, materials, and expertise;
(3) countering efforts by state-sponsored and non-state actors to carry out such attacks;
(4) responding to nuclear terrorism incidents to attribute their origin and help manage their consequences;
(5) budgets likely to be required to implement effectively such strategies; and
(6) other important matters that are directly relevant to such strategies.
NASEM will produce a consensus report and may produce additional products (such as proceedings of workshops) by mutual agreement with the sponsor. The consensus report will be unclassified with a classified annex.
Contributors
Committee
Chair
Vice Chair
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Staff Officer
Committee Membership Roster Comments
Jessica Stern added to the committee on 7/15/22.
Nickolas Roth is working with the committee as a consultant. Roth serves as a senior director on the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s Nuclear Materials Security Program team, where he focuses on reducing the risk of nuclear terrorism, advancing arms control and disarmament, and strengthening institutions that support non-proliferation. Roth earned a Master of Public Policy from the University of Maryland. He is currently a research scholar at the Center for International Security Studies at the University of Maryland and an associate of the Project on Managing the Atom at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Sponsors
Department of Defense
Staff
Michael Janicke
Lead
Jennifer Heimberg
Lead
Charles Ferguson
Lead
Kayanna Wymbs
