April 06, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 28, 1429

WASHINGTON, April 5: The possibility of a terrorist attack on a nuclear installation in Pakistan is very remote as the country has taken stringent security measures to thwart such attempts, says a report released by a Washington think tank.

“The control and security measures Pakistan has already taken are enough to deter and delay a terrorist attack,” says the author, Mohammed Saleem Zafar.

“Any such attempt would be detected in the early stages,” argues Mr Zafar, a chief scientific officer with the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority, Islamabad, and now a visiting fellow at Washington’s Henry L. Stimson Centre.

He also argues that the sabotage act on a nuclear installation is “not very attractive to a terrorist group in general and specifically within the context of Pakistan.”

In 2006, the PNRA initiated a five-year national nuclear safety and security action plan to establish a more robust nuclear security regime. It seeks to build up Pakistan’s ability to plan for responding to, and recovering from, terrorist incidents in collaboration with relevant governmental agencies.

The plan deals with radiation sources, transport safety, deployment of radiation detection equipment and other similar measures.

The report notes that Pakistan has experienced terrorist attacks but these were very target specific and mostly in retaliation to some action taken domestically or outside the country. None of the terrorist actions was designed to kill a large population or to cause panic on a large scale.

And while no such terrorist action was ever directed towards a nuclear installation, radiation facility, or any other hazardous industries, “a change of strategy by the terrorists cannot be ignored.”

The terrorists, the report adds, can use the following methods if they decide to target a nuclear installation in Pakistan: truck bomb, anti-tank weapons, commando-type raids, aeroplanes or helicopter and insider collusion.

It examines each of these methods separately and concludes that Pakistan is well-prepared to deal with any of these attempts.

The report reviews the possibility of sabotage from inside a nuclear installation more closely and recommends several measures.

Better preplanning and intelligence gathering efforts are required to deter, detect and thwart possible sabotage attempts.

Personnel reliability programme needs to be further enhanced as well. This programme includes a background check to verify identity, credit history, criminal history, reputation and character.

Periodic reviews of job performance and co-worker interaction are needed to ensure that an employee’s reliability remains high over time. An individual’s after-work activities also need to be monitored.

The following occurrences may result in decertification for nuclear duty: alcohol abuse/dependency, drug abuse, conviction of or involvement in a serious incident, an adverse medical, physical or mental condition or serious progressive illness, lack of motivation, or suicide attempt or threat.