Defusing Armageddon: Inside NEST, America's Secret Nuclear Bomb Squad

xiv, 318 p. Illustrations (Letters, Maps, Figures, and Tables). Occasional footnotes. Terminology. Notes. Index. "Defusing Armageddon" is the first in-depth examination of the Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST): America's secret government agency set up in 1974 to prevent nuclear terrorist attacks. Jeffrey T. Richelson provides a behind-the-scenes look at NEST's personnel, operations, and detection and disablement equipment-employed in response to attempts at nuclear extortion, lost and stolen nuclear material, crashed nuclear-powered Soviet satellites and al-Qaeda's quest for nuclear weapons. He traces the Cosmos satellite that crashed into the Canadian wilderness, nuclear threats to cities and the surveillance of Muslim sites in the United States after 9/11. Relying on recently declassified documents and interviews with former NEST personnel, Richelson's extensive research reveals how NEST operated during the Cold War, how the agency has evolved and its current efforts. First edition. Stated. First printing [stated].…