Nuclear Terrorism is the act of terrorism in which a person or persons belonging to a terrorist organization detonates a nuclear device. Some examples of this would be getting or making a nuclear weapon, creating a dirty bomb, attacking a nuclear reactor, or attacking a nuclear armed submarine, plane, or base. President Barrack Obama describes nuclear terrorism as, “the single most important national security threat that we face”. This threat could increase the amount of casualties in an attack, exponentially. But to fully understand nuclear terrorism we need to fully grasp what nuclear power can do and how destructive terrorism can be.
Nuclear Power is defined as an electric or motive power generated by a nuclear reactor. The way this is done is a process called fission in which an atom is split into two. The reason this is so useful is because it produces great amounts of electricity. This takes place in a nuclear reactor. In the nuclear reactor, a uranium nucleus is bombarded with a neutron. This in turn leaves two smaller atoms, up to three free neutrons, and energy or electricity. This process is so useful because it leaves more supplies to create energy than we started with. If scientists use this process over and over again, they can keep creating more energy to power objects that everyday people need but never run out of supplies. Some advantages of nuclear power is that it does not produce greenhouse gasses, it produces massive amounts of energy, and nuclear power plants have a very low operating cost. Some disadvantages of nuclear power is it produces dangerous waste products that must be stored underground, it has very high startup costs, and nuclear power can be used to blow up an entire city if manipulated into a bomb. Nuclear Power is generally created in a nuclear power plant where the energy created is used for powering cities or different objects. Nuclear Power can also be created by a nuclear bomb where the energy is used to destroy cities and different objects. The difference between a power plant and a bomb is the speed at which the chain reaction is happening. With a power plant, the chain reaction is very slow and the energy is harnessed to power turbines to create electricity. With a bomb, the chain reaction is very fast with nothing slowing it down, which results in huge explosions that are meant to destroy. This power to destroy can be especially dangerous in the hands of a terrorist. Terrorism can be defined as a tactic or technique by means of which a violent act or the threat thereof is used for the prime purpose of creating overwhelming fear for coercive purposes. Terrorism is considered a major threat to society and can be classified as a war crime when used to target civilians. According to the Global Terrorism Database, there have been more that 61,000 acts of terrorism from 2000 to 2014. Terrorism has been divided into six categories. The first category is civil disorder. Civil disorder is civil disorder is violence that disrupts the peace of the community. It is designed as a demonstration to the public through violence. The second category is political terrorism, which is designed to generate fear in the community for a political purpose. The third category is non-political terrorism, which is a form of violence not done for a political purpose but for other purposes like religion. The fourth category is quasi-terrorism, which is a violent act but not used to induce fear. An example of this would be a criminal taking hostages to help him escape. He is acting like a terrorist but not to cause fear, to escape. The fifth form of terrorism is limited political terrorism, which is political terrorism but on a smaller scale. Instead of trying to overthrow the government, they are trying to protest the government. The sixth and final form of terrorism is state terrorism, which is a violent action by an existing government. Any form of terrorism is dangerous and becomes exponentially more dangerous when you add a nuclear bomb into the equation. Terrorism is one of the most dangerous threats we have today. Since September 11, 2001, terrorism has been the biggest topic on how to defend against it in the 2000s. Imagine if the attacks on the twin towers had not been a plane but a nuclear weapon. That would have been much more destructive and we would be a completely different country than we are today. We would have stronger defenses against nuclear weapons. We would have plans in schools in case of a nuclear attack. We do not have anything for these attacks. People say that the only thing that can protect you from a nuclear attack is distance away from it, but I doubt that. If we were hit with a nuclear attack, we would have a plan in schools and we would have stronger defenses. Nuclear Terrorism is the greatest threat we face today.
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