BOMBS HAVE A SHORT LIFESPAN, HAD ANY BEEN STOLEN IN THE PAST, THEY WOULD NO LONGER BE USEFUL. John Mueller 2007 (Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies, Mershon Center Professor of Political Science, "REACTIONS AND OVERREACTIONS TO TERRORISM Prepared for delivery at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois, August September 3, 2007, http://psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/faculty/jmueller/APSA2007.PDF. There has been a lot of worry about "loose nukes" particularly in post-Communist Russia- weapons, "suitcase bombs" in particular, that can be stolen or bought illicitly. However, when asked, Russian nuclear officials and experts on the Russian nuclear programs "adamantly deny that al Qaeda or any other terrorist group could have bought Soviet-made suitcase nukes" They further point out that the bombs, all built before 1991, are difficult to maintain and have a lifespan of one to three years after which they become "radioactive scrap metal" (Badken 2004). Similarly, a careful assessment of the concern conducted by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies has concluded that it is unlikely that any of these devices have actually been lost and that, regardless, their effectiveness would be very low or even nonexistent because they require continual maintenance (2002, 4, 12; see also Langewiesche 2007, 19).
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