A few days ago, the IAEA published an article about nuclear security. Here’s the opening paragraph:
Nuclear and other radioactive material is hardest to protect when it is transported from point A to point B — more than half of the incidents of theft of radioactive material reported to the IAEA between 1993 and 2019 occurred while it was in transport.
The rest of the piece, which is worth reading, continues in that vein and observes that this subject is on the agenda at a forthcoming meeting.The article reminded me of a 1960 State Dept MemCon of a meeting with JCAE members that the National Security Archives published a little while back. In addition to a slew of other interesting material, the memo describes some JCAE concerns about the security of U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe.
In addition to observing that “[a]bout 99 per cent of accidents with nuclear weapons occur while they are being transported,” the memo has more relevant content:
