According to a recently report by the Latin American and Caribbean Leadership Network (LALN), with support of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), detonation of a “small and primitive” nuclear bomb may result in tens of thousands of people dead, a years-long decline in international trade and other disastrous consequences.
The report, titled Terror Unleashed: An Assessment of Global and National Impacts of a Nuclear Terrorist Attack, calls on national leaders from around the world to implement policies aimed at preventing the detonation of a nuclear bomb, while implementing preparedness and response measures if one were to explode.
“According to the 2016 Nuclear Security Index by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, 24 countries still host inventories of nuclear weapons-usable materials, stored in facilities with different degrees of security,” LALN’S Head of the Secretariat Irma Argüello said. “Such dangerous diversity is the consequence of a traditional mindset, which sees nuclear security as an exclusive matter of states’ sovereign decisions. However, this report calls for a review of such traditional concepts, taking into account that a security flaw in a country can affect many others.”
Recommendations made in the report included nations securing their nuclear materials and facilities to an agreed minimum acceptable level, reduce or eliminate HEU separated plutonium with the support of reactors conversation, implement reliable border systems controls, coordinate nuclear security efforts regarding nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, and implement global security measures within the scope of the United Nations Security Council.