Analysis | China’s President Xi Jinping vows to step up nuclear security in face of terror threat
Nation will move to prevent radioactive materials getting into terrorists’ hands, he tells summit in Washington
President Xi Jinping has vowed to ramp up China’s nuclear security to prevent the threat of terrorists getting hold of radioactive material to create weapons.
Nuclear terrorism is the common enemy of all mankind. Nuclear security incidents will have impacts that go beyond national borders
Xi said in a speech at a nuclear security summit in Washington that China would strengthen its monitoring and control of nuclear materials and push for greater international cooperation to tackle the issue.
“Nuclear terrorism is the common enemy of all mankind,” he said. “Nuclear security incidents will have impacts that go beyond national borders. In the age of connectivity, no country can deal with such problems alone and no country can stay immune from their impacts.”
US President Barack Obama told the summit that extremists who got hold of nuclear weapons or materials would not hesitate to launch a catastrophic attack.
He said about 2,000 tonnes of nuclear materials were stored around the world at civilian and military facilities, but some of it was not properly secured.
Just the smallest amount of plutonium, about the size of an apple, would kill and injure hundreds of thousands of innocent people