Nuke Plans on Black Market?

Several months after Libya began abandoning its wmd program in late 2003, it delivered two cd-roms to investigators that contained detailed blueprints for equipment necessary for making nuclear bombs. The blueprints outlined how to manufacture the components for two different uranium centrifuge systems, what resources are required, how to assemble the equipment, and how to test them. United Nations officials are concerned that several sets of these electronic drawings are still unaccounted for.

These plans are likely circulating the black market, UN officials say. “We know there were several sets of them [the digital plans] prepared,” said one official. “So who got those electronic drawings? We have only actually got to the one full set from Libya. So who got the rest, the copies?” (Guardian, June 9).

A European diplomat with knowledge of the extent of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan’s network remarked, “This is what keeps people awake at night. … The fact that there are [nuclear] proliferation manuals kicking around is deeply disturbing” (ibid.).

The probability of a nuclear terrorist attack is disturbingly high. To understand the prophetic implications of this alarming situation, see our July 2005 article “Flat-Footed on Nuclear Terrorism.”