Suitcase Nuclear Bomb Unlikely to Exist

Then House Armed Services Committee staff member Peter Pry displays a model of what a nuclear suitcase bomb "might look like" during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington in this Oct. 26, 1999 file photo. Hollywood has made TV shows and movies about the devices and the Federal Emergency Management Agency has alerted Americans of the threat - information that the White House redistributes on its web site. But government experts and intelligence officials say such a threat gets vastly more attention than it deserves. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook, File) (Dennis Cook - AP)

Laura Holgate, a vice president at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, says the U.S. has not appropriately prioritized its responses to the nuclear threat and, as a result, is poorly using its scarce resources.

Much to many people's surprise, she noted, highly enriched uranium _ outside of a weapon _ is so benign that a person can hold it in his hands and not face any ill effects until years later, if at all. It can also slip through U.S. safeguards, she says.

The Homeland Security Department is planning to spend more than $1 billion on radiation detectors at ports of entry. But government auditors found that the devices cannot distinguish between benign radiation sources, such as kitty litter, and potentially dangerous ones, including highly enriched uranium.

Holgate considers the substance the greatest threat because it exists not only at nuclear weapons sites worldwide, but also in more than 100 civilian research facilities in dozens of countries, often with inadequate security.

Her Washington-based nonproliferation organization wants to see the U.S. get a better handle on the material that can be used for bombs _ much of it is in Russia _ and secure it.

The big problem, she said, is not a fancy suitcase nuke, but rather a terrorist cell with nuclear material that has enough knowledge to make an improvised device.

How big would that be? "Like SUV-sized. Way bigger than a suitcase," she said.

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On the Net:

White House's "Are You Ready?" information: http://tinyurl.com/5x6y

FEMA's kids' page: http://www.fema.gov/kids/nse/radiological.htm

FBI's weapons of mass destruction page: http://www.fbi.gov/hq/nsb/wmd/wmd_home.htm

National Atomic Museum: http://www.atomicmuseum.com/

Nuclear Threat Initiative: http://www.nti.org/