Nuclear Emergency Support Team

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The Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) is an American program for all types of nuclear emergencies run by the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) .

history

The Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) was founded in 1974/75 under US President Gerald Ford and renamed the Nuclear Emergency Support Team in 2002 .

NEST is an anti-terrorist unit that intervened in incidents involving radioactive materials or nuclear weapons owned by the United States, such as accidents, sabotage or theft abroad. In 1978, NEST was used in Operation Morning Light to find fragments of the Soviet Kosmos 954 satellite that crashed over Canada .

In 1981 the unit's budget was around $ 50 million.

In November 1988, a secret agreement from 1976 between the USA and the Federal Republic of Germany became known to the public that stipulated the use of NEST in the Federal Republic. The agreement provides that the federal government will be informed immediately by the US armed forces if a nuclear weapon has fallen into the wrong hands and NEST is to be used. Within the scope of their responsibility, the German federal authorities manage the replacement of nuclear weapons within the federal territory. During the Cold War , numerous nuclear weapons were stored in Germany and around 10 to 20 atomic bombs are still on the Büchel Air Base today . In Germany, a similar unit called the Central Federal Support Group for Serious Cases of Nuclear Hazard Defense (ZUB) has existed since 2003 .

Today, NEST consists of teams with up to 600 scientists, technicians and other special forces who can be deployed globally. Helicopters and airplanes with sensors for the detection of ionizing radiation and substances are available to the NEST teams and their range of tasks includes in particular the training and specialization of response teams that support the US federal authorities with technical know-how in solving nuclear or radiological terrorist incidents .

In March 2011, NEST were used in the nuclear accidents in Japan .

literature

  • Jeffrey T. Richelson: Defusing Armageddon: Inside NEST, America's Secret Nuclear Bomb Squad . WW Norton & Company, 2009, ISBN 0-393-06515-4
  • The atomic bomb is in Manhattan . In: Der Spiegel . No. 23 , 1981 ( online ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nuclear Emergency Support Team ( Memento from September 23, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) doe.gov; Retrieved March 26, 2011
  2. ^ US national response assets for radiological incidents . PMID 16217190
  3. ↑ US Nuclear Detection and Counterterrorism, 1998-2009 gwu.edu.
  4. ↑ fas.org
  5. ^ Secret Government Team Fights to Negate Nuclear Threat . abcnews.go.com, October 2005
  6. ^ Nevada-based nuclear response team arrives in Japan lvrj.com, accessed March 26, 2011