ABSTRACT
Graham Allison1 discusses this issue in his 2004 book Nuclear Terrorism, emphasizing that, as he puts it in the subtitle of this book, nuclear terrorism is the “ultimate preventable catastrophe.” Unfortunately, this conclusion may be overly optimistic in that his proposals for strict control over fissile material and the prevention of the acquisition of nuclear weapons by additional nations, while excellent policies, may not work perfectly. It is also possible that terrorist groups have already obtained enough of this material to produce a nuclear weapon or even already possess such a weapon.
