Defusing Armageddon: Inside NEST, America's Secret Nuclear Bomb Squad

by Jeffrey T. Richelson

The first in-depth examination of America's super-secret government agency operating to prevent nuclear terrorist attacks. Jeffrey T. Richelson reveals the history of the Nuclear Emergency Support Team, from the events leading to its creation in 1974 to today. Defusing Armageddon provides a behind-the-scenes look at NEST's personnel, operations, and detection and disablement equipment--employed in response to attempts at nuclear extortion, lost and stolen nuclear material, crashed nuclear-powered Soviet satellites, and al Qaeda's quest for nuclear weapons. Richelson traces the Cosmos satellite that crashed into the Canadian wilderness; nuclear threats to Los Angeles, New York, and other cities; and the surveillance of Muslim sites in the United States after 9/11. Relying on recently declassified documents and interviews with former NEST personnel, Richelson's extensive research reveals how NEST operated during the Cold War, how the agency has evolved, and its current efforts to reduce the chance of a nuclear device decimating an American city. 16 pages of illustrations; 4 maps

Genres: History, Nonfiction

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 5, 2009

Reviews

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Richelson makes a good effort here, but part of the problem with both the book and the narrative of the Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) at large is the lack of real use they've had in the four decades since their founding. Aside from the MORNING LIGHT deployment to Canada, NEST has seen no real action other than exercises and hoaxes.

Thus, unfortunately, leads to the need to essentially pad the book with short summaries of nuclear terrorism, 9/11, Al Qaeda in the 1990s, Aum Shirinkiyo, and other semi-relevant incidents and threats. But much of this is a bare chronological retelling. When it comes to NEST itself, all too many paragraphs are straight recounting of one exercise in 1984. Then in 1985, another exercise. 1986 saw yet one more exercise. And so on.

What little can be said about NEST is said well here. And the book proves the notion that much of the information classified by the US government is really just stuff we already know, but with a little more detail.

The scholarship in this book is more or less as good as is possible, but the inclusion of footnotes referencing Wikipedia articles is definitely a questionable sign. And seeing as Defusing Armageddon doesn't reveal much more than can be found in the subject's Wikipedia page, that might be a quicker-reading version of this book.

[Nick Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

read like the same book three times in a row. very little information i didn't already have from Nuclear Forensic Analysis.

[Ushan · Rating 3 out of 5]

In October 1945, George Orwell wrote an article on the recently invented atomic bomb, saying that "the question that is of most urgent interest to all of us" is "How difficult are these things to manufacture?" The same question has been posed many times, and the answer has usually been, "For someone who possesses a few kilograms of highly enriched uranium or plutonium, not very difficult." In 1970, the police department of Orlando, Florida, received a letter with a threat to explode a hydrogen bomb in the city unless the writer is given $1 million and a safe passage out of the country. The letter included a sketch of the bomb's design; Orlando police showed it to an armament officer at an Air Force base a few miles away, who said that it would work; Stanislaw Ulam, a co-inventor of the hydrogen bomb, thought so too. The ransom was to be delivered to a vacant house; a 14-year-old boy was observed mowing the lawn of the house; he was arrested and confessed. The judge put him on probation under the supervision of two scientists, so his talents could develop in a positive direction, not in a negative one as they would in jail. In the coming years there were dozens of such threats, almost all of them hoaxes, though the authorities had no way of knowing that. A contractor at a General Electric uranium plant in Wilmington, North Carolina, was no hoaxer; in 1979, he stole 67 kilos of uranium and tried to blackmail the management; he got 15 years of prison. In order to deal with such threats, the Nuclear Emergency Search Team was formed within the Department of Energy; later the "Search" was changed to "Support". The team has been investigating threats and participating in exercises ever since, with ever more sophisticated equipment. In 1978, a Soviet nuclear-powered satellite crashed over northern Canada; the team searched over a wide area (which had naturally radioactive outcroppings of uranium, which complicated the search) and found many chunks of the satellite. In 2003, the Secretary of Homeland Security was concerned that Al-Qaeda might explode a dirty bomb, and ordered the team to look for radiation sources through U.S. cities. In Las Vegas, it found radiation coming from a unit in a storage facility. Just as G-men were about to break into the unit, a homeless man who was the unit's owner stepped in and opened it; his duffel bag had a cigar-sized sealed radium pellet used to treat uterine cancer; it had remained in the man's pillow for three years since he found the shiny stainless-steel object, being unaware of its purpose. There are hundreds of thousands of such radiation sources in the United States, and apparently not all are disposed of properly. There are also hundreds of tons of highly enriched uranium and plutonium throughout the world; in 2007, intruders broke into South Africa's main nuclear facility, which holds several bombs' worth of uranium; though they didn't steal anything, they were not found. Opinions are divided as to whether a terrorist nuclear attack is likely; even if unlikely, it would be fantastically costly. So NEST is training to prevent such an attack, and mitigate its consequences if it takes place.

[Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Defusing Armageddon" is a very interesting book about U.S. Nuclear Emergency Search Teams that have been deployed to a variety of nuclear accidents, emergencies or threats. Highly recommended.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

scary stuff...i had no idea there where this many nuclear "incidents"

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome. A glimpse into the world we never see...

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terrifying in its incompetence vs the scope and risk of its task; the story of NEST will likely keep you up at night. However this book is written as a dry academic historical account, so I consider it a real tour de force that is book may succeed in putting you to sleep after all.

[Ryan Healey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never heard of NEST until I saw Transformers 2 and thought it was fake. I was wrong. These men and women risk their lives in responding to nuclear threats in the U.S. A majority of Americans probably never even knew we had a team like this.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subject matter -- countering nuclear terrorism -- is interesting, but the book (only 240 pages plus copious references) is kind of a slog. At times, wading through all of the quotes from government documents makes it feel like you're reading a FOIA dump. Come for the dirty bombs, stay for the casino extortion IED.