And the ability of the United States or other developed countries "to protect their infrastructure" from nuclear, chemical, or biological terrorist attack, Deutch said, "is very small indeed." Infrastructure vulnerability is an issue, he explained at a Se nate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee hearing on global proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and illicit trafficking of nuclear materials, because there has been a growth in international terrorism and a willingness by terrorists to attack ci vilian populations.

Senator Sam Nunn noted that the "new adversaries" of the United States and its allies "are in some ways more dangerous than the Cold War threats" once faced. Now, he pointed out, there is "the possibility that weapons of mass destruction may become access ible to groups willing to do the unthinkable." Senator Richard Lugar said he believes that the risk of a possible nuclear detonation in the United States could increase if "nuclear terrorists gain access to the torrent of nuclear materials awash in Russi a and the other states" of the former Soviet Union. He cited German statistics that there had been 700 cases of attempted nuclear materials smuggling in Russia between 1991 and 1994 and that, in 1993, the Russian government reported 900 attempts to illega lly enter Russian nuclear facilities.

Deutch pointed out that most of the reports of Russian diversions have been "bogus," although in a few cases weapons-usable material has been involved but in such small quantities as to be "significantly less than what is required for a nuclear explosive device." Nevertheless, he stressed, these incidents should "serve as a warning to us." Enough nuclear materials to create an explosive device could conceivably be smuggled in one suitcase, he said. The director observed that the Russians no longer have e nough money to provide adequate security for their nuclear weapons facilities and that the deteriorating security situation invites diversion. That threat "is real," he said, and "we must do everything we can to reduce the strategic nuclear material inven tory productive capacity" in Russia.

If a significant diversion were to occur, either through the sale of some nuclear device or a meaningful amount of strategic nuclear materials, he warned, "we will face a crisis of enormous proportions." For terrorists or subnational groups, Deutch explai ned, "the only practical way to acquire nuclear weapons" is by stealing or purchasing them or by buying the strategic nuclear materials and then addressing "the much simpler problem of constructing a device from the highly enriched uranium or plutonium."