There are fewer states on the nuclear materials list:
The number of countries possessing the makings of a nuclear bomb has dropped by almost one-quarter over the past two years, but there remain "dangerous weak links" in nuclear materials security that could be exploited by terrorist groups with potentially catastrophic results, according to a study released Wednesday.
The study by the Nuclear Threat Initiative said Mexico, Sweden, Ukraine, Vietnam, Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary have removed all or most of the weapons-usable nuclear materials on their territories since 2012. ...
"That's a big deal," said Page Stoutland, vice president of the group's nuclear materials security program. ...
The drop in the number of countries possessing such materials could be seen as modestly encouraging for President Barack Obama's declared ambition to lock down all of the world's highly enriched uranium and plutonium -- the building blocks of a nuclear weapon.
Yes, my nightmares of some crazy Hungarian getting nuclear material is finally put to rest. That's the way to earn that Nobel Peace Prize, after the fact!
Those Swedes, too, are thankfully out of the nuke business. They could probably IKEAize a bomb into twelve pieces that fit in a small box for easy assembly by some nutball.
I mock. The initiative says this is good because there are fewer places where nuclear material can be stolen. Point taken.
But until Iran and North Korea are off the list of countries possessing the makings of a nuclear bomb, then putting these other countries on a list is a rounding error in reducing the threat and not anywhere near being a big deal.
And honestly, given Ukraine's and Vietnam's tense relations with their larger, rather controlling neighbors, I'm kind of surprised they gave up nuclear materials.
