Preventing a Nightmare Scenario: Terrorist Attacks Using Russian Nuclear Weapons and Materials

From The Heritage Foundation:

Radical Islamist organizations are seeking nuclear weapons. That they might obtain or build one is the nightmare scenario.

Thus we have a "Russian problem," writes Ariel Cohen. Soviet-era "nuclear, chemical, and biological material stor­age facilities often were--and still are--protected by nothing more than a padlock, an impoverished conscript, or a retirement-age guard."

Cohen lays out the framework of a seven-point plan to contain the threat of loose nukes by building on the Proliferation Security Initiative, expanding funding for the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, and stepping up intelligence and public diplomacy.

Fighting this threat may be more challenging than any Cold War task, concludes Cohen, but "The United States and its allies have no alternative."