Nuclear terrorism and political violence are an extreme threat to global security
By Aurora Weiss
Vienna（INPS Japan）ー For nearly eight decades, the world has been navigating the dangers of the nuclear age. Despite Cold War tensions and the rise of global terrorism, nuclear weapons have not been used in conflict since Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Efforts such as strategic deterrence, arms control and non-proliferation agreements, and the global counterterrorism have helped to keep nuclear incidents at bay. However, the nation’s success to date in countering nuclear terrorism does not come with a guarantee, success often carries the risk that other challenges will siphon away attention and resources and can lead to the perception that the threat no longer exists.
There is more than one way to cause terror with radioactivity. It can take at least four forms: detonation of an intact nuclear weapon, an improvised nuclear device, a radiation-dispersal device or “dirty bomb”; or the release of radioactivity. ｜GERMAN｜
Leader in this field is United Nations Office for Drugs and Crimes in Vienna, Austria. For nearly two decades, UNODC promotes universalization and effective implementation of the counter-terrorism international legal instruments, including The International convention for the suppression of acts of nuclear terrorism (ICSANT). The risk of nuclear and other radioactive material falling into the wrong hands and being used for terrorist or other criminal purposes is one of the bigest concerns of our time.
Maria Lorenzo Sobrado serves as UNODC’s focal point for UNSCR 1540 and she is the Head of the CBRN Terrorism Prevention Programme at the Terrorism Prevention Branch of UNODC. The programme promotes the universalization of the international legal framework against CBRN terrorism and assists States with its effective implementation. A lawyer by training, she has a Master’s in Non-proliferation of WMDs and a Diploma in Nuclear Law. The key role played by UNODC in furnishing assistance to Member States to prevent CBRN terrorism has been recognized by the afore-mentioned UN General Assembly resolution, as well as in a variety of relevant fora. UNODC is a member of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact’s Emerging Threats and Critical Infrastructure Protection Working Group, an observer at the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction and a corresponding organization at the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiological and Nuclear Emergencies, among others. UNODC has been providing a wide range of support in that regard, including outreach through national, regional and global workshops, legislative assistance, and capacity building for criminal justice officials and has developed a number of tools including a mock trial, eLearning courses, webinars and a manual on ICSANT-related fictional cases.
The latest developments in the field of nuclear terrorism
The past month brought a range of developments in nuclear security around the world, from the launch by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of a new Regulatory Infrastructure Development Project for Asia and the Pacific to strengthen radiation safety and nuclear security in the region to the guilty plea entered by a Japanese criminal leader at his trial for trafficking nuclear material sourced from Myanmar. In other news, drones flying over nuclear power plants in Minnesota and Louisiana are worrying local leaders and law enforcement officials. While the former head of the U.S.National Nuclear Security Administration launched a study of the proliferation risks of the High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel that advanced nuclear reactors under development will use, it is unclear how that study will play out under the new administration. The Trump administration has indicated a significant interest in emerging technology, however, and a partnership has already been announced between the U.S. National Laboratories and OpenAI for scientific research and nuclear weapons security, including “securing nuclear materials and weapons worldwide.” The public call to nuclear terrorism act by USA President Donald Trump in which he called on Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities is extremely disturbing. We should not forget about the Russian military attack on the nuclear reactor of the Zaporizhzhia power plant in 2022. The potential disaster was prevented by the prompt reaction and intervention of the IAEA agency headed by its director, General Rafael Grossi.
Big credit to the DEA agents in stopping nuclear materials to end up in the wrong hands
The case of Takeshi Ebisawa shows why the effective investment in law enforcement and prosecution training provided by UNODC is of key importance for security and prevention in protection against nuclear terrorism. Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, of Japan, pleaded guilty in Manhattan, New York, on the January 8, 2025 to conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials, including uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, from Burma to other countries, as well as to international narcotics trafficking and weapons charges. Takeshi Ebisawa admitted that he brazenly trafficked nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium, out of Burma.
According to the court documents and evidence presented at court, since at least in or about 2019, the DEA investigated Ebisawa in connection with large-scale narcotics and weapons trafficking. During the investigation, Ebisawa unwittingly introduced an undercover DEA agent, posing as a narcotics and weapons trafficker, to Ebisawa’s international network of criminal associates, which spanned Japan, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, and the United States, among other places, for the purpose of arranging large-scale narcotics and weapons transactions.
In early 2020 Ebisawa told two undercover agents that he had access to a “large quantity” of nuclear materials he wished to sell, and sent a series of photos of rocky substances next to Geiger counters that measured radiation levels.
One of the undercover agents told Ebisawa they had an interested buyer who they claimed was an Iranian general.
Ebisawa further engaged with the undercover agent as he expressed an interest in buying other military-grade weapons such as surface-to-air missiles that he said could be used by an insurgent group inside Burma. The arrangement resulted in a swap of sorts, with unnamed co-conspirators allegedly supporting Ebisawa telling the undercover they “had available more than 2,000 kilograms of Thorium-232 and more than 100 kilograms of uranium in the form of U3O8.” – which the co-conspirators said “could produce as much as five tons of nuclear materials in Burma.” The compound U3O8 is commonly known as “yellowcake,” which is a name familiar to anyone who lived through the lead-up to the Iraq War in 2003.
In a meeting arranged by Ebisawa with the undercover agents in Southeast Asia, one of Ebisawa’s co-conspirators brought the undercover into a hotel room and allegedly showed him two plastic containers with samples of the nuclear materials. Thai authorities then assisted in the seizure of the materials which were handed over to U.S. law enforcement, which subsequently tested the samples and confirmed they contained uranium, thorium and plutonium. Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of the DEA’s Special Operations Division, the career national security prosecutors of this Office, and the cooperation of our law enforcement partners in Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand, that Ebisawa’s plot was detected and stopped.
This article is brought to you by INPS Japan in collabolation with Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with UN ECOSOC.
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