Joseph Rotblat
Sir,
In the agonizing analysis of Tuesday's tragic events, two points need to be stressed germane to future dangers. One is the complete disregard by the perpetrators for human life, as evidenced by the choice of targets and the timing of the attacks on New York. The second is that the terrorists are a powerful organization with huge financial, manpower, and very likely technological resources. This means that much more devastating attacks cannot be excluded.
One such attack could be by the use of a biological weapon, and there plenty of them in the world. But far worse would be the use of a nuclear device. I would not be surprised if a group like Bin Laden's had managed to acquire such a device and had already smuggled it into a city in the USA, or, indeed, in the UK. Try to imagine devastation ten, or even a hundred times greater than we saw on Tuesday. The mind boggles. But this is a real threat.
Urgent measures need to be taken to lessen the probability of this occurring, namely by reducing the availability of the materials necessary to nuclear weapons - highly-enriched uranium and plutonium.
There are huge quantities of weapon-grade uranium. Russia has more than 1000 tonnes, enough to make 20,000 atom bombs. It is quite easy to render it harmless by mixing it with natural uranium. A deal was arranged some years ago between the USA and Russia to dilute 500 tonnes of the latter's uranium but, for mainly commercial reasons, this is proceeding at an incredibly slow pace (about 30 tonnes per year). President George W. Bush should authorize an acceleration of the programme.
There are also large quantities of plutonium, in the USA and Russia, from the dismantlement of nuclear warheads. A programme for the disposition of the plutonium has been prepared but according to recent reports, the design work on a US plutonium immobilization plant has been suspended, apparently for financial reasons. The Russian programme is also ailing for lack of finance. Here again President Bush should take action.
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