Nuclear weapons materials gone missing
Subtitle: what does history teach?
By: Henry D. Sokolski, editor
Contributors: Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute; Army War College (U.S.). Press
Publisher: Strategic Studies Institute and U.S. Army War College Press; Department of the Army
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Carlisle, PA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 191
ISBN-13: 9781584876526
Subjects: Nuclear nonproliferation; Nuclear weapons; Management; Radioactive substances; Nuclear fuels; Nuclear reactors; Materials; Nuclear disarmament
Description: "In 2009, President Obama spotlighted nuclear terrorism as one of the top threats to international security, launching an international effort to identify, secure, and dispose of global stocks of weapons-usable nuclear materials -- namely highly enriched uranium and weapons-grade plutonium. Since that time, three nuclear security summits have been held, along with scores of studies and workshops (official and unofficial), drawing sustained high-level attention to the threat posed by these materials. However, little attention has been given to incidences where sensitive nuclear materials actually went missing. This volume seeks to correct this deficiency, examining incidences of material unaccounted for (MUF) arising from the U.S. and South African nuclear weapons programs, plutonium gone missing from Japanese and British civilian production facilities, and a theft of highly enriched uranium from a U.S. military contractor in the 1960s that was used to help fuel Israel's nuclear weapons program. This volume also questions the likelihood that the International Atomic Energy Agency would be able to detect diversions of fissile materials, whether large or small, and the likelihood that a state could or would do anything about the diversion if it was detected. What emerges from this book is an assessment of how likely we are to be able to account for past MUF quantities or to be able to prevent future ones"--Publisher's web site.
Notes: "November 2014."

Includes bibliographical references.

Also available online in PDF format from Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) web site.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : materials unaccounted for : nuclear weapons materials gone missing / Henry D. Sokolski; title: U.S. military nuclear material unaccounted for : missing in action or just sloppy practices? / Charles D. Ferguson; title: A brief commentary on "U.S. military nuclear material unaccounted for : missing in action or just sloppy practices?" / Thomas B. Cochran and Matthew G. McKinzie; title: Sometimes major violations of nuclear security get ignored / Victor Gilinsky; title: The nonproliferation regime and its discontents / Leonard Weiss; title: Can the IAEA safeguard fuel-cycle facilities? The historical record / Alan J. Kuperman, David Sokolow, and Edwin S. Lyman; title: Review of "Can the IAEA safeguard fuel-cycle facilities? The historical record" / Ryan A. Snyder; title: Dismantling the South African nuclear weapons program : lessons learned and questions unresolved / Jodi Lieberman; title: Verifying the dismantlement of South Africa's nuclear weapons program / Olli Heinonen.