Defusing Armageddon

About this book

"Shortly after 9 /11, the United States received reports that Al-Qaeda had acquired a Russian nuclear weapon and intended to detonate it in New York. That scare was not the first time U.S. officials had faced such a grave threat." "Defusing Armageddon begins in the mid-twentieth century, when the U.S. Intelligence Community developed serious concerns that the Soviet Union might smuggle a nuclear weapon into the United States. It then shows how other events over several decades - from airborne disasters that resulted in the loss of American nuclear bombs to the spread of international terrorism, to the threats of nuclear extortionists - led to the creation of a secret team of scientists and technicians in 1974, ordered to respond to any and all nuclear threats against America." "Since that time, members of the Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) have been deployed in a wide variety of circumstances: in response to nuclear extortion threats and the crash of Soviet nuclear-powered satellites, and in precautionary missions - from the 1976 Bicentennial to the 2008 Beijing Olympics - to sniff out possible terrorist bombs. Defusing Armageddon reveals the overwhelming importance of this too-little-known team of scientists and chronicles for the first time the expertise and willingness of the team members - who are willing to risk their lives to prevent a catastrophic attack."--Jacket.