With the dissolution of the Soviet Union the nuclear threats facing the
world are constantly evolving and have grown more complex since the end
of the Cold War. The diversion of complete weapon systems or nuclear
material to rogue nations and terrorist organizations has increased and
new nuclear powers (e.g. Iran, Korea, Pakistan and India) have further
complicated global proliferation issues. The events of the past years
have proved the necessity to reevaluate these threats on a level never
before considered. In recognition that no single country possesses all
of the answers to the critical scientific, institutional and legal
questions associated with combating nuclear and radiological terrorism,
the 2005 Workshop and this proceeding was structured to promote
wide-ranging, multi-national exploration of critical technology needs
and underlying scientific challenges to reducing the threat of
nuclear/radiological terrorism; to illustrate through country-specific
presentations how resulting technologies were used in national programs;
and to outline the role of legal, policy and institutional frameworks in
countering nuclear/radiological terrorism. One key outcome of this book
is better understanding of the independent contributions from across the
international community of the scientific and technological components
and the legal, policy and institutional components to combating
nuclear/radiological terrorism. The book can serve as a tool for
communicating the outcomes of the workshop not only to the
multi-national scientific communities engaged in combating
nuclear/radiological terrorism, but also to those working at
governmental and policy levels whose actions affect the directions the
science takes and how the technology is incorporated into
country-specific national systems for combating nuclear/radiological
terrorism.