Durante casi 80 años, el mundo ha gestionado los riesgos de las armas nucleares, y desde Hiroshima y Nagasaki en 1945 no se han utilizado bombas nucleares en conflictos. Medidas como la disuasión estratégica, el control de armamentos, los acuerdos de no proliferación y la lucha antiterrorista mundial han ayudado a prevenir incidentes nucleares. El informe adjunto, producido por las Academias Nacionales de Ciencias, Ingeniería y Medicina de EEUU (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine) destaca que, sin embargo, no está garantizado que se siga teniendo éxito en la prevención del terrorismo nuclear, ya que de la misma manera que con otras armas de destrucción masiva, otros desafíos pueden desviar la atención y los recursos, lo que podría fomentar la creencia de que la amenaza ya no es significativa.
For nearly eight decades, the world has been navigating the dangers of the nuclear age. Despite Cold War tensions and the rise of global terrorism, nuclear weapons have not been used in conflict since Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Efforts such as strategic deterrence, arms control and non-proliferation agreements, and the U.S.-led global counterterrorism have helped to keep nuclear incidents at bay. However, the nation’s success to date in countering nuclear terrorism does not come with a guarantee, success often carries the risk that other challenges will siphon away attention and resources and can lead to the perception that the threat no longer exists.
This report found that U.S. efforts to counter nuclear or radiological terrorism are not keeping pace with the evolving threat landscape. The U.S. government should maintain a strategic focus and effort on combatting terrorism across the national security community in coordination with international partners, State, Local, Tribal and Territorial authorities, the National Laboratories, universities and colleges, and civil society. Developing and sustaining adequate nuclear incident response and recovery capabilities at the local and state levels will likely require significant new investments in resources and empowerment of local response from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, and National Institutes of Health.
