Nuclear weapons, primal fears
Feeling relaxed today? Well, consider a few facts recounted during a Harvard panel discussion: There are 23,000 nuclear weapons, and enough enriched uranium and plutonium to make 100,000 more. Officially, nine countries have such weapons, but 30 possess the basic ingredients to make at least a crude bomb. And size is not a limiting factor. The enriched uranium needed to detonate such a weapon would fit into a six-pack of beer, said Graham Allison, one of a coterie of analysts at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) who specialize in security and nuclear terrorism. Shielded in a lead container, he said, such a weapon could be smuggled into the United States “in a bale of marijuana.” Allison, who directs the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, moderated the panel on the future of nuclear weapons on Wednesday (Dec. 1), at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, a venue sponsored by the Institute...