The nuclear threat as a terrorist option

There has not been a single instance of nuclear terrorism in the fifty‐plus years since the end of World War II. The dissolution of the Soviet Union, however, has rendered nuclear materials and technology vulnerable to various forms of diversion, which may enable terrorist use of nuclear or radiological devices. The several terrorist options in this regard are described and evaluated. Nuclear capabilities based upon theft or construction of a device are viewed as remote possibilities. Environmental contamination through a radiological device or reactor sabotage is (and has been) a viable option. A general theoretical principle is advanced as a possible explanation for the terrorist avoidance of the nuclear option.