President Barack Obama Friday called for continued collective efforts to stave off the risk of nuclear terrorism, saying the threat continues to persist and evolve despite considerable progress toward reducing the risk.
“By working together, our nations have made it harder for terrorists to get their hands on nuclear material. We have measurably reduced the risk. But as we discussed at last night’s dinner, the threat of nuclear terrorism persists and continues to evolve,” the US president said at the fourth Nuclear Security Summit in the capital’s Walter E Washington Convention Center.
Obama, who launched the Summit in his firs term in 2010, was speaking to a gathering of more than 50 world leaders and delegates, as he led the Summit about 10 months before his second White House term ends. Russia has not participated in the summit.
The US president remarked “fortunately because of our coordinated efforts, no terrorist group has succeeded thus far in obtaining a nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb made of radioactive materials.”
But, he reminded the gathering of militant organization’s attempts at getting access to nuclear materials and said that al Qaida has long sought nuclear materials.
He also referred to the latest incident of much concern, saying, “individuals involved in the attacks in Paris and Brussels videotaped a senior manager who works at a Belgian nuclear facility.”
Besides, the ISIL has already used chemical weapons, including mustard gas, in Syria and Iraq.
“There is no doubt that if these madmen ever got their hands on a nuclear bomb or nuclear material they most certainly would use it to kill as many innocent people as possible.”
“And that’s why our work here remains so critical. The single most effective defense against nuclear terrorism is fully securing this material so it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands in the first place.”
At the same time, Obama acknowledged that the job is difficult. At hundreds of military and civilian facilities around the world, there’s still roughly 2,000 tons of nuclear material, and not all of this is properly secured.
“And just the smallest amount of plutonium — about the size of an apple — could kill and injure hundreds of thousands of innocent people. It would be a humanitarian, political, economic, and environmental catastrophe with global ramifications for decades. It would change our world.”
“So we cannot be complacent. We have to build on our progress. We have to commit to better security at nuclear facilities; to removing or disposing of more dangerous material; to bringing more nations into treaties and partnerships that prevent proliferation and smuggling; and to making sure that we have the architecture in place to sustain our momentum in the years ahead.”
He called on the international community including members of the US-led coalition fighting ISIL (also known as ISIS or Daesh) to do everything in power to keep a terrorist group like ISIL from ever getting its hands not just on a nuclear weapon, but any weapon of mass destruction.
Showcasing some of the progress toward nuclear security Obama said after many years of work, 102 nations have now ratified a key treaty — the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material.
Obama also emphasized the United States would continue to play its role as leader of non-proliferation efforts.
“Today we’re releasing a detailed description of the security measures our military takes to protect nuclear material so that other nations can improve their security and transparency as well.
The United States is, for the first time in a decade, providing a public inventory of our stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, which could be used for nuclear weapons, and “that inventory is one that we have reduced considerably. When it comes to our nuclear-powered ships and submarines, we’re exploring ways to further reduce our holdings of highly enriched uranium,” he added.
On the eve of the Summit, Obama wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post, stressing that “of all the threats to global security and peace, the most dangerous is the proliferation and potential use of nuclear weapons.”
He recounted a series of steps like the US and Russia meeting New START Treaty obligations, strengthening the global regime including the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and Iran nuclear deal, which he argued, have strengthened nuclear security.
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