Nuclear Safety, Obama called leaders to take action

Nuclear Safety, Obama called leaders to take action

 

 

WASHINGTON — Warning that the risk of a nuclear attack has grown since the end of the Cold War, U.S. President Barack Obama called on world leaders to take action to make sure nuclear materials are kept under lock and key.



President Obama formally opened his Nuclear Security Summit today by telling delegates from 46 other nations that this is "an unprecedented gathering to address an unprecedented threat" -- nuclear terrorism.

"Two decades after the end of the Cold War, we face a cruel irony of history," Obama said. "The risk of a nuclear confrontation between nations has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up."

Preventing such "a catastrophe for the world " is the purpose of the summit, Obama said in brief public remarks before a morning plenary session that took place behind closed doors.

Echoing comments released earlier by the White House, Obama said that "dozens of nations" have nuclear materials that terrorists could buy or steal, then fashion into a weapon.

"Just the smallest amount of plutonium -- about the size of an apple -- could kill and injure hundreds of thousands of innocent people," he said.

Terrorist groups such as al Qaeda -- the perpetrators of 9/11 -- have been trying to build a bomb for years. "And if they ever succeed," Obama said, "they would surely use it."

Obama also announced that a second Nuclear Security Summit will be held in 2012 in South Korea -- right across the de-militarized zone from nuclear-armed North Korea.

In his opening remarks, Obama also asked for a moment of silence in memory of the weekend tragedy in Poland, the plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of Polish government officials.

 

Source: [ USAToday ]