Nuclear terrorism--acts of violence (political and non-political) involving radioactive materials, assaults on nuclear facilities, and thefts of nuclear warheads

• 3 Jan 1961: United States--criticality accident at SL-1 test reactor kills 3; according to reports, the excursion was a murder-suicide by the worker who extracted a control rod.
• 1966-1977: Europe--10 terrorist incidents against European nuclear installations.²
• before 1974: Austria--Radioisotope indium-113 applied to a railroad car.³
• 1974-1986: United States--32 acts of intentional damage or suspected sabotage at domestic nuclear facilities.⁴
• 1974-1985: Total of nearly 100 instances that involved response by NEST.⁵
• 1974-1980: United States--total of about 80 instances of nuclear threats deemed credible; only two prompted NEST deployment.⁶
• 15 Aug 1975: France--Two bombs exploded at Mt. d'Arree NPS in Brittany: one at far end of canal between plant and cooling lake, the other damaging a air chimney for plant buildings in the compound. The reactor was shut down temporarily for inspection.⁷
• 12 May 1976: Maine--Two bombs exploded in the headquarters of the Central Maine Power Company in Augusta; a Fred Hampton Unit of the People's Forces claimed responsibility and demanded end to expansion of nuclear powerplants.⁸
• 10 Oct 1977: Oregon--Bomb exploded next to visitor center at Trojan NPS, with Environmental Assault Unit of the New World Liberation Front claiming responsibility.⁹
• 18 Dec 1977: Spain--4 ETA terrorists attack guard post at Lemoniz NPS, with one terrorist killed; ETA later claimed to have planned to blow up the reactors.¹⁰
• 17 Mar 1978: Spain--Bomb exploded in steam generator of Lemoniz NPS killing 2 construction workers and injuring 14, ten minutes after ETA phone call warned of bomb; damage amounted to $6,000,000.¹¹
• 1979: France--Environmental terrorists cause $20 million in damages at a nuclear plant.¹²
• 1979: Virginia--2 plant operator trainees entered fuel storage building at Surry NPS and damaged four new fuel assemblies by pouring sodium hydroxide on them.¹³
• Jan 1979: North Carolina--An employee of a GE subcontractor sent extortion letter with sample of uranium dioxide to general manager of GE nuclear faility in Wilmington. Individual had stolen two 5-gallon containers of uranium dioxide and threatened to disperse them in unnamed U.S. city unless he received $100,000 ransom. He was arrested and sentenced to 15 years.¹⁴
• 13 Jun 1979: Spain--Two ETA guerrillas planted bomb in turbine room of Lemoniz NPS which was later detonated 25 minutes after a warning call. One worker who did not evacuate was killed; a tank containing 5,000 liters of oil was ignited and turbine components were moderately damaged. The ETA claimed responsibility on 16 June.¹⁵
• 11 Nov 1979: Spain--5 ETA guerrillas entered Equipos Nucleares (Nuclear Instruments) factory in Maliano, planted explosives and kidnapped the 10 guards on duty; guards were released near Santander-Vizcaya border. Charges exploded after midnight, causing $6,000,000 in damage mostly to one end of main factory building. ETA claimed responsibility on 13 November.¹⁶
• before 1980: France--Radioactive graphite fuel element plugs placed under driver's seat of a car; victim sustained 25-30 rad dose to his spinal bone marrow and 400-500 rads to his testes. Perpetrator was tried and convicted of poisoning by radiation, fined $1,000, and served 9 months in prison.¹⁷
• 1981: New York--fuel oil filter drains were closed on backup diesel power generators at Nine Mile Point Unit 1, apparently intentionally, preventing their startup.¹⁸
• 1981: Ohio--water valve was found shut, apparently intentionally, at Beaver Valley NPS, leaving high-pressure portion of emergency cooling system disabled.¹⁹
• 1982: France--Five rockets fired into Creys-Malville nuclear facility, causing minor damage.²⁰
• Aug 1982: New Jersey--values were found closed on backup diesel generator at Salem Unit II NPS, apparently intentionally, which would prevent generator start-up.²¹
• 1983: West Germany--Four West Germans gain forced entry to a Pershing missile site and attempt to destroy a missile with crowbars.²²
• 12 Nov 1984: Missouri--Four Catholic peace activists of the Silo Pruning Hooks entered Minuteman ICBM site near Higginsville and did over $10,000 worth of damage to equipment with a jack hammer; all were arrested and charged with destruction of federal property.²³
• Apr 1985: New York--Credible claim emerged that New York City's water reservoirs had been contaminated with plutonium; testing detected femtocurie levels of plutonium in the water.²⁴
• Jun 1985: Arizona--Report of intentional tampering with water valves at Palo Verde NPS.²⁵
• after 1987: Pennsylvania--Mentally ill man drives his station wagon through the fence at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant and wanders on foot for a period of time before being captured.²⁶
• 28 Nov 1987: California--Bomb exploded at 1:30 A.M. in parking lot of Sandia National Laboratories (next to LLNL); 32 hours later a caller claimed responsibility for the Nuclear Liberation Front, although link was unconfirmed.²⁷
• Feb 1990: Azerbaijan--Azerbeijani rebels unsuccessfully attacked a Soviet military depot near Baku where nuclear weapons are stored; Soviet troops were sent to secure the base.²⁸
• Jan 1992: Iran--Egyptian newspaper claimed Iran had bought three Soviet nuclear warheads from Kazakhstan for $150 million; Kazakhstan denied the report. In April Russian intelligence reported Iran had obtained at least two warheads from Kazakhstan; in July a Kazakh official said the three reportedly missing warheads were in test shafts at the Kazakh test site; in September a U.S. congressional task force alleged Iran had obtained 4 Soviet warheads (including 2 operational): two 40 kt SRBM warheads, one 50 kt NGB, and one 0.1 kt AFAP. By 1994 Russia said the warheads were accounted for; Israeli officials suggest the warheads were borrowed for disassembly and reverse engineering.²⁹
• Mar 1992: Commonwealth of Independent States--Reportedly, box of radioactive material stolen from Pridniestroviye, Transdnestr; thieves threatened to blow up the material if fighting in Moldova was not stopped.³⁰
• 1993: Russia--A radioactive substance was planted in the chair of Vladimir Kaplun, director of a Russian packing company; over several weeks Kaplun contracted radiation sickness and died.³¹
• Nov 1993: Russia--Two nuclear warheads reportedly stolen by two employees of the Zlatoust-36 Instrument Building Plant near Chelyabinsk, a weapons assembly facility; weapons recovered in a nearby residential garage and the employees arrested shortly afterwards.³²
• Mar 1994: Russia--At SS-25 ICBM site at Barnaul in Siberia, a Russian soldier opens fire with sub-machine gun and kills commander and two other soldiers; other soldiers could not return fire because they would have had to fire towards the SS-25; the soldier was persuaded to surrender after three hours, having taking refuge in an armoured vehicle.³³
• 23 Nov 1995: Russia--Shamil Basayev, Chechen rebel commander, directs television news crew to a parcel of cesium-137 buried in Izmailovsky Park, eastern Moscow; parcel reportedly posed no threat and was removed. Parcel weighed 32 kg, contained 10-50 mCi, and was part of a hospital x-ray machine taken in a prior raid.³⁴
• Dec 1995: France--Saboteurs put salt into a cooling contour of one of the Blayais nuclear power reactors.³⁵
• 9 Jan 1996: Russia--Chechen fighters attack a Russian military airfield at Kizlyar unsucessfully, then temporarily take about 2,000 civilian hostages.³⁶
• Jun 1996: New York--several individuals arrested in plot to kill Republican officials; seized weapons included radioactive materials.³⁷
• after 1996: Russia--Gunman barracades himself in a nuclear submarine and holds police at bay for several hours.³⁸
• May 1997: Russia--Aleksandr Lebed claims privately and later publicly that a number of Soviet ADMs disguised as suitcases are missing; his claims are affirmed by some but no concrete evidence emerges.³⁹
• Nov 1997: Russia--Several threats to sabotage submarine nuclear reactors are made by one or more Murmansk shipyard workers in demanding back pay they are owed.⁴⁰
• 19 Aug 1999: United States--Andris Blakis spread phosphorous-32 on the chair of a co-worker in Los Angeles, CA, causing a dose to the co-worker of a few tenths of a rem; Blakis was arrested and charged.⁴¹
• 6-8 Jun 2000: Japan--Tsugio Uchinishi sent letters laced with monazite (a thorium-containing mineral) to 10 government offices in Tokyo in protest of illegal uranium exports to North Korea.⁴²
• 20 Dec 2000: Japan--A man scattered a small amount of iodine-125 at a subway ticket gate in Osaka; the man was arrested, and no injuries resulted.⁴³
• 2001: worldwide--6 incidents involving terrorism with nuclear or radiological materials.⁴⁴

NOTES:

2. Denton, p. 152.
3. Mullen, pp. 242, 246.
4. Denton, p. 152.
5. ITFPNT, p. 17.
6. Gates, p. 402.
7. Kellen, pp. 123-124.
8. Kellen, p. 124.
9. Kellen, p. 124.
10. Kellen, p. 124.
11. Kellen, p. 125.
12. Denton, p. 152.
13. Hirsch, p. 212.
14. Hirsch, p. 212.
15. Kellen, p. 126.
16. Kellen, pp. 126-127.
17. Mullen, pp. 242, 246.
18. Hirsch, p. 211.
19. Hirsch, p. 211.
20. Denton, p. 152.
21. Hirsch, p. 212.
22. Denton, p. 153.
23. "Missile Protesters," p. 4.
24. Mullen, p. 243; Spector, 1985, p. 5.
25. The Washington Post, p. A5a.
26.
27. Hoffman, p. 1.
28. High Frontier, April 1990, p. 2, and July 1991, p. 5.
29. Potter, pp. 125-148; Hedges, p. A10.
30. Potter, p. 135.
31. Lee, p.
32. Lee, p. 124.
33. Jane's, p. 15.
34. Lee, pp. 135-136; FAS, 27 March 1996.
35. Bukharin, p. 8.
36. Bukharin, p. 10; Lieven, pp. 137-138.
37.
38.
39. Parrish.
40. Bellona, 9 Nov. 1997.
41. Center for Nonproliferation Studies, on line.
42. Center for Nonproliferation Studies, on line.
43. Center for Nonproliferation Studies, on line.
44. Center for Nonproliferation Studies, on line.

SOURCES

Arnold, Sandi, and Michael Barletta, "Overview of Reported Nuclear Trafficking Incidents Involving Turkey, 1993-1999," July 1999, Center for Nonproliferation Studies, on line.
Bellona, "3.8 Kilograms Stolen Uranium Seized in Caucasus," 21 Sept. 1997, Bellona, on line [http://www.bellona.no].
Bellona, "Kola Shipyard Workers: 'We Will Arrange Another Chernobyl'", 9 Nov. 1997, Bellona, on line [http://www.bellona.no].
Bellona, "The Orgin of the Uranium Has Not Been Identified," 19 Feb. 1998, Bellona, on line [http://www.bellona.no].
Belyaninov, A., "Nuclear Nonsense, Black-Market Bombs, and Fissile Flim-Flam", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Mar./Apr. 1994, pp. 44-50.
Bukharin, Oleg, "Problems of Nuclear Terrorism," The Monitor, Spring 1997, pp. 8-10.
Burrows, William E., and Robert Windrem, Critical Mass: The Dangerous Race for Superweapons in a Fragmenting World, 1994, New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
Cockburn, Andrew, and Leslie Cockburn, One Point Safe, 1997, New York, NY: Bantam Doubleday Dell.
Cordesman, Anthony H., "Terrorism and the Threat From Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East," 22 October 1996, CSIS, on line [http://www.csis.org/]
Denton, Jeremiah, "International Terrorism--The Nuclear Dimension," in Nuclear Terrorism: Defining the Threat, ed. by Paul Leventhal and Yonah Alexander, 1986, Washington, DC: Pergamon-Brassey's, pp. 150-157.
Federation of American Scientists, "Appendix A: Chronology of Nuclear Smuggling Incidents," 27 March 1996, Federation of American Scientists, on line [http://www.fas.org/ irp/cia/product/go_appendixa_032796.html]
Gates, Mahlon E., "The Nuclear Emergency Search Team", in Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: The Report and Papers of the International Task Force on Prevention of Nuclear Terrorism, ed. by Paul Leventhal and Yonah Alexander, 1987, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, pp. 397-402.
Gordon, Michael, "Stolen Uranium Intercepted Near Border of Georgia and Turkey," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 25 Sept. 1999.
Hedges, Chris, "Iran May Be Able to Build an Atomic Bomb in 5 Years, U.S. and Israeli Officials Fear", The New York Times, 5 January 1995, p. A10.
Hersh, Seymour M., The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy, 1991, New York, NY: Random House.
Hibbs, Mark, "Plutonium, Politics, and Panic", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Nov./Dec. 1994, pp. 24-31.
High Frontier, "In the News", High Frontier Newswatch, Arlington, VA: High Frontier: April 1990, p. 2; Sept. 1990, p. 3; May 1991, p. 3; July 1991, p. 5; Sept. 1992, p. 2.
Hirsch, Daniel, "The Truck Bomb and Insider Threats to Nuclear Facilities", in Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: The Report and Papers of the International Task Force on Prevention of Nuclear Terrorism, ed. by Paul Leventhal and Yonah Alexander, 1987, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, pp. 207-222.
Hoffman, Bruce, Recent Trends and Future Prospects of Terrorism in the United States, May 1988, Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation.
Hughes, David, "Uranium Seizures Heighten Terrorism Concerns", Aviation Week and Space Technology, 3 April 1995, pp. 63-64.
International Task Force on Prevention of Nuclear Terrorism, "Task Force Report", in Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: The Report and Papers of the International Task Force on Prevention of Nuclear Terrorism, ed. by Paul Leventhal and Yonah Alexander, 1987, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, pp. 7-49.
Jane's, "Silo Shooting a Cause for Concern", Jane's Defence Weekly, 9 April 1994, p. 15.
Kaplan, David E., and Andrew Marshall, The Cult at the End of the World, 1996, New York, NY: Crown Publ.
Kellen, Konrad, "The Potential for Nuclear Terrorism: A Discussion", with "Appendix: Nuclear-Related Terrorist Activities by Political Terrorists", in Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: The Report and Papers of the International Task Force on Prevention of Nuclear Terrorism, ed. by Paul Leventhal and Yonah Alexander, 1987, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, pp. 104-122 ("The Potential ...") and pp. 123-133 ("Appendix").
Kupperman, Robert, and Jeff Kamen, Final Warning: Averting Disaster in the New Age of Terrorism, 1989, New York, NY: Doubleday.
Leader, Stefan, "Osama Bin Laden and the Terrorist Search for WMD," Jane's Intelligence Review, June 1999, pp. 34-37.
Lee, Rensselaer W. III, Smuggling Armageddon: The Nuclear Black Market in the Former Soviet Union and Europe, 1998, New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.
Lieven, Anatol, Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power, 2nd ed., 1999, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Mann, Paul, "Mass Weapons Threat Deepens Worldwide," Aviation Week and Space Technology, 17 June 1996, pp. 58-60.
Mastrangelo, Eugene, "Terrorist Activities by Region", in Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: The Report and Papers of the International Task Force on Prevention of Nuclear Terrorism, ed. by Paul Leventhal and Yonah Alexande r, 1987, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, pp. 134-145.
Mazur, Allan, "Research Note: Bomb Threats Against American Nuclear-Energy Facilities", Journal of Military and Political Sociology, Spring 1983, pp. 109-121.
The Monterey Institute of International Studies and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Nuclear Successor States of the Soviet Union: Status Report on Nuclear Weapons, Fissile Material, and Export Controls, No. 5, March 1998, on line, Center for Nonproliferation Studies [http://cns.miis.edu].
Mullen, Robert K., "Nuclear Violence", in Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: The Report and Papers of the International Task Force on Prevention of Nuclear Terrorism, ed. by Paul Leventhal and Yonah Alexander, 1987, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, pp. 231-247.
"Nuclear Smuggling Incidents", 1994, on line [http://www.infomanage.com/timeline.html].
Parrish, Scott, "Are Suitcase Nukes on the Loose? The Story Behind the Controversy," 1997, on line.
Phillips, John Aristotle, and David Michaelis, Mushroom: The True Story of the A-Bomb Kid, 1978, New York, NY: Pocket Books.
"The Plutonium Racket", Economist, 20 Aug. 1994, pp. 39-40.
Potter, William C., "Before the Deluge? Assessing the Threat of Nuclear Leakage From the Post-Soviet States," Arms Control Today, Oct. 1995, pp. 9-16.
Potter, William C., Nuclear Profiles of the Soviet Successor States, 1993, Monterey, CA: Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Robitaille, A., and R. Purver, "Smuggling Special Nuclear Materials," May 1995, on line, Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
Rossnagel, Alexander, "Physical Protection of Special Nuclear Materials in the Federal Republic of Germany", in Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: The Report and Papers of the International Task Force on Prevention of Nuclear Terrorism, ed. by Paul Leventhal and Yonah Alexander, 1987, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, pp. 223-230.
Spector, Leonard S., "Clandestine Nuclear Trade and the Threat of Nuclear Terrorism", in Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: The Report and Papers of the International Task Force on Prevention of Nuclear Terrorism, ed. by Paul Leventhal and Yonah Alexander, 1987, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, pp. 78-87.
Spector, Leonard S., Going Nuclear: The Spread of Nuclear Weapons 1986-1987, 1987, Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publ. Co. for Carnegie Endowment.
Spector, Leonard S., The New Nuclear Nations: The Spread of Nuclear Weapons 1985, 1985, New York, NY: Random House.
Spector, Leonard S., Nuclear Proliferation Today: The Spread of Nuclear Weapons 1984, 1984, New York, NY: Random House.
Spector, Leonard S., The Undeclared Bomb: The Spread of Nuclear Weapons 1987-1988, 1988, Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publ. Co. for the Carnegie Endowment.
Valente, Judith, "Checking the Threat of Nuclear Terrorism", The News-Sun (Lake County, IL), 13/14 Aug. 1983, p. 5B.
The Washington Post, 12 July 1985, p. A5a.

(excerpt from Nuclear Terrorism and Related Incidents, version 5)
© 2000-2002, 2003 by Wm. Robert Johnston.
Last modified 28 September 2003.
Return to Home. Return to Nuclear Weapons.