THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE
Division on Earth and Life Studies
Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board and the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology
Committee on Assessing and Improving Strategies for Preventing, Countering and Responding to Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism: Nuclear Threats
and
Committee on Assessing and Improving Strategies for Preventing, Countering and Responding to Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism: Chemical Threats
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Congressional Briefings
Friday, June 14, 2024 – 11:00 a.m.
and
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
10:00 a.m. -- Chemical Terrorism
and
4:00 p.m. – Nuclear Terrorism
via Zoom
on
Nuclear Terrorism: Assessment of U.S. Strategies to Prevent, Counter, and Respond to Weapons of Mass Destruction
Requested by Congress in P.L. 116-283, the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, two new reports from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine look at strategies for preventing, countering, and responding to weapons of mass destruction.
The first report, Nuclear Terrorism, focuses on U.S. efforts to counter nuclear or radiological terrorism and finds that these efforts are not keeping pace with the evolving threat landscape. The U.S. government should maintain a strategic focus and effort on combatting terrorism across the national security community in coordination with international partners, State, Local, Tribal and Territorial authorities, the National Laboratories, universities and colleges, and civil society. Developing and sustaining adequate nuclear incident response and recovery capabilities at the local and state levels will likely require significant new investments in resources and empowerment of local response from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, and National Institutes of Health.
Chemical Terrorism: Assessment of U.S. Strategies in the Era of Great Power Competition
In the second report, Chemical Terrorism, the study committee describes how the United States’ capacity and capability to identify, prevent, counter, and respond adequately to chemical threats is established by the strategies, policies, and laws enacted across multiple levels of government. While the number of chemical terrorism incidents has risen and fallen over time, there is no empirical or analytical indication that the threat is disappearing. This report comes at a time when the nation’s highest-level strategies have shifted from focusing primarily on violent extremist organizations to focusing more on Great Power Competition. This shift in relative perceived threat and consequent prioritization will impact efforts against chemical terrorism, and in turn, affect funding priorities. Revised risk assessments are needed to reprioritize risks guided by new strategies, so that strategy-aligned budgets can be created. The report recommends weapons of mass destruction budgets be aligned with evolving priorities and incentivize activities that transition promising research to operations.
These briefings were for members of Congress and congressional staff only. The two reports were publicly released on June 18, 2024 and can be found, in their entireties, on the Web site of the National Academies Press at the links provided above.