75 years after the Hiroshima bomb, nuclear threat remains

Rogue states must be monitored, but the bigger fear is atomic terrorism. A handful of plutonium could kill many thousands

The atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killed 140,000 people.   Picture: Eugene Hoshiko

Tomorrow marks the 75th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bomb attack which killed at least 140,000 people at Hiroshima. Three-quarters of a century on, while there remains significant concern over states using nuclear weapons again, including North Korea, policy focus has shifted to the threat of atomic terrorism.

Nuclear terror became a prominent feature of the international radar after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s when concerns were raised about safeguarding the former Communist state’s extensive nuclear weaponry.