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Article: Muon-assured defence; Finding nukes.(Finding nuclear weapons at border-crossing points)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- February 26, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Using cosmic rays to spot nuclear weapons
A CERTAIN sort of madness once seemed enough to defend the United States from nuclear attack. "MAD"--Mutually Assured Destruction--operated on the premise that the best defence is a good offence. But the American government worries that MAD-style deterrence will no longer work. Terrorists, for example, might not care about the threat of destruction. And to make matters worse, any nuclear weapons used by terrorists or rogue states may not arrive by ballistic missile. Instead, they are likely to come in a cargo container--either by ship or on the back of a lorry driven across one of the country's long land borders. So the ...