2 homeland security forum responses (215)

The current threat of terrorist acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction is a very real and scary threat. A lot of countries do not have the same resources and security that the United States have so it can be difficult for them to secure certain materials. In 2006 a material known as highly enriched uranium was actually seized from a Russian national in Georgia. Whoever stole the highly enriched uranium and tried to sell it made a very dangerous decision. The fact that highly enriched uranium was stolen is a very serious threat. It does not take a lot of highly enriched uranium to build a nuclear weapon. What is even scarier is the fact that terrorist organizations can actually build a nuclear weapon using highly enriched uranium pretty much by themselves without any help from outside sources. So the question is who stole the highly enriched uranium? At the time of the incident all figures pointed to Russia, but of course they dismissed those reports. Some sources believe that the seizure of the highly enriched uranium was the result of a sting operation by Georgia who believed Russia was looking for someone to buy the highly enriched uranium. An undercover Georgia agent was able to convince the seller the he was Muslim and the Russian national ended up selling him the highly enriched uranium. We have to ask ourselves, where did this highly enriched uranium come from? Georgia attempted to seek help form Russian and the United States, but Russia did not do a very good job at helping. One must ask themselves why did Russia not want to help out? Throughout the years Georgia has seized uranium and it needs to be figured out how these people are obtaining it. This all leads to the question of how does the United States protect its self from potential attacks? It is extremely difficult to prevent terrorist from obtaining materials that can build weapons of mass destruction. Highly enriched uranium is used throughout the world for numerous types of things. This makes it extremely difficult for the United States and the rest of the world to keep track of it.

References

Sokova, E., Potter, W., & Chuen, C. (2007). Recent Weapons Grade Uranium Smuggling Case: Nuclear Materials are Still on the Loose. Retrieved from https://edge.apus.edu/access/content/group/333985/Lesson%207%20Readings%20and%20Resources/CNS%20Research%20Story.pdf