President Obama wants to make sure nuclear weapons don't end up in the wrong hands. "The single biggest threat to U.S. security both short term, medium term, and long term would be the possibility of a terrorist organization obtaining a nuclear weapon." The president's goal this week is getting nations to agree to secure so called loose nukes within four years. he also wants to come up with specific ways to crack down on nuclear smuggling. By one estimate there's enough nuclear material in the world to build more than 120,000 bombs.
By Tara Mergener
WASHINGTON - President Obama opens the Nuclear Security Summit in the nation's capital today with leaders from more than 40 other countries. Their goal is to find a way to safeguard one of the most dangerous weapons in the world.
On the eve of his two-day summit with dozens of world leaders, the President arned that groups like Al-Qaida are currently trying to secure the deadly weapons. He says they wouldn't be afraid to use them if they could. "Unfortunately, we have a situation where there is a lot of loose nuclear material around the world."
So far, there haven't been any known instances of terrorist groups obtaining the deadly weapons. Still, there have been more than a dozen cases of nuclear material being stolen or going missing since the early 1990's. "We want to deal with the nuclear threat first and foremost, because that's the one that we face right today," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
With 47 governments attending, the summit is thought to be the largest gathering ever of world leaders in the nation's capital. Not on the guest list are countries viewed as uncooperative including Iran which is trying to build nuclear weapons and North Korea which already has them.
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