DEFUSING ARMAGEDDON

Dense political history of the high-tech agency devoted to ensuring that all those books and movies depicting evildoers sneaking nuclear bombs into America remain works of fiction.

Before the 1974 creation of the Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST), the United States experienced many frightening nuclear-related incidents, from bombs accidentally dropped by Air Force planes to stolen fission material and fraudulent announcements by individuals claiming to possess a bomb. None produced civilian casualties, but experts deplored the makeshift nature of the responses from government and industry specialists, local police and the FBI. A senior fellow at the National Security Archive, Richelson (Spying on the Bomb, 2006, etc.) admits that NEST has never been “super-secret,” although some of its equipment is classified. The scientists, engineers and technicians who work for the agency travel worldwide to investigate threats, search for nuclear material and assist in its disposal. Since NEST’s creation, world terrorism has mushroomed. The author chronicles terrorists’ energetic attempts to acquire a nuclear device or enough radioactive material to disperse in a low-tech “dirty bomb.” Despite an unnerving number of potential sources, from corrupt former Soviet officials to Pakistani scientists sympathetic to terrorist aims, no plot has come near to success, but Richelson’s stories will keep readers squirming. NEST has not yet short-circuited an actual attack, so readers should not expect dramatic surprises, and the pace flags when the narrative bogs down in interminable political infighting over control of U.S. antiterrorism forces, or descriptions of the agency’s many realistic training missions and efforts to help nations secure their nuclear stockpiles. Readers can skip these sections in favor of the author’s gripping tales of nuclear-related hoaxes, complex extortion plots, reactor mishaps and genuine efforts by terrorists who usually ended up buying useless material from conmen or miscellaneous but unhelpful bomb parts.

A modest contribution to the history of nuclear weapons, enlivened by anecdotes alternately amusing and frightening.