Poor security at U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories puts them at risk of suicidal terrorist attacks, U.S. Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said yesterday.

“Experts have told me that a group of suicidal terrorists could, once inside [a weapons research laboratory] quickly build and detonate a dirty bomb or a homemade nuclear bomb capable of achieving explosive critical yield,” Markey said.

“[The U.S. Energy Department] has been ignoring expert critical reports on security of its facilities for decades, and as a result we are all at risk,” he said.

In a letter to the Energy Department to be sent today, Markey highlighted security concerns raised by internal department documents and a study last year by the Project on Government Oversight.  The Project’s study found that federal agents, posing as “commando teams” were able to breach the security at nuclear research facilities in more than half of their attempts, according to the Washington Post (see GSN, Oct. 5, 2001).

During one test at the Rocky Flats facility in Colorado, a Navy special forces team was able to steal enough nuclear material to make several weapons, the Post reported.  During another test at the Los Alamos facility in New Mexico, federal agents posing as terrorists had enough time to construct a crude nuclear device. 

In many of the tests, facility officials were notified well in advance of the mock terrorist attacks, according to the Post.  Facility security forces, however, were often not able to stop the mock terrorist teams.  Some of the research facilities were first built for use in the Manhattan Project in the 1940s and their poor physical condition adds to their security flaws, the Post reported.

The Project’s report raised serious questions but “much of it is old data,” said John Gordon, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

“The idea that a terrorist could get particularly close to a weapons site is a bit far-fetched” because of the high quality of facility security forces, Gordon said.  He added that test failures did not mean that the facilities were easy targets for terrorists, since the tests are meant to test the limits of security measures which are then improved (Pianin/Miller, Washington Post, Jan. 23).

Terrorists Could Recreate Hiroshima

Terrorists attacking a nuclear weapons laboratory could be able to cause a chain reaction using available uranium that could create an explosion, experts said. 

A crude bomb could be made without conventional explosives by bringing uranium pieces together, said Ron Timm, a former Energy Department security official.

“Flying a 757 or a 767 is a lot more sophisticated than what we’re discussing here,” Timm said.

A 100-pound piece of uranium dropped onto another 100-pound uranium piece from a distance of about six feet could cause an explosion of up to 10 kilotons, said Princeton professor Frank von Hippel.  The bomb dropped on Hiroshima, which used uranium, caused an explosion that was 12 to 17 kilotons, according to the New York Times.

In his letter to the Energy Department, Markey wrote that terrorists could attempt to “rapidly [propel] two masses of weapons grade plutonium or uranium towards one another to create a critical mass” by using conventional explosives.  Experts have said this is how the bomb used at Hiroshima was detonated.

Gordon, however, said he was confident in the security at weapons research facilities. 

“After Sept. 11, we’ve put the folks on higher alert and they’re working very aggressively,” Gordon said.  “I think [an Energy Department’s] weapons site is one of the last places a terrorist would think about attacking and having hopes of success.  The security basically bristles” (Matthew Wald, New York Times, Jan. 23).

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