The alarming fact that weapons grade plutonium can be smuggled into the U.S.A. in cat litter by terrorists was graphically demonstrated in the film ‘Countdown to Zero’ shown recently by Salisbury Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

With the availability of plutonium, stolen in small quantities by workers in Russian facilities, then smuggled into the Middle East, it is no longer very difficult for terrorists to assemble a nuclear bomb.

The film explored three scenarios described by President Kennedy, in an address to the UN Assembly in 1961: “Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, or by miscalculation or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.”

Both Russia and America have experienced horrifying false alarms on several occasions. The US was only minutes away from launching missiles when a malfunctioning computer chip was discovered to be the cause of an incoming ‘Russian attack’. The possession of nuclear weapons by countries with potentially unstable governments, pose huge risks when they have a perceived enemy, such as Pakistan and India. As Iran embarks on a programme for development of nuclear technology, President Ahmadinejad was filmed saying ‘If it’s a good thing then we should have it too. And if it’s bad, why do you have it?’ The film concluded that the only solution is to rid the world of all nuclear weapons and set up a nuclear watchdog to contain and police all nuclear materials.

There will be a meeting on Wednesday, November 12 at St Thomas’s House, St Thomas’s Square, Salisbury at 7.30pm (doors open from 7.00pm), for anyone interested in discussing this film.

More details at www.cndsalisbury.org.uk or on 01722 321865