Keep Up the Pace of Locking Down the Bomb

"Terrorists are still seeking nuclear and radiological materials to carry out appalling acts of terror. The effort to lock down these materials around the world and keep them out of terrorist hands is crucial to U.S. national security and has long had bipartisan support. The Bush administration greatly expanded nuclear security programs, and President Obama gathered leaders from around the world for an unprecedented nuclear security summit, gaining agreement on the goal of securing all vulnerable nuclear material worldwide within four years.

But now, House appropriators, in their efforts to reduce the yawning gap in the federal budget, have proposed to cut over $600 million from the request for these nonproliferation programs. These are programs that are removing highly enriched uranium (HEU) — the easiest material in the world for terrorists to use to make a nuclear bomb — from inadequately secured sites, beefing up security and accounting measures at scores of locations around the world, and installing detectors to improve the chances that we might be able to detect smuggled nuclear or radiological material before it was too late...."

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