US President Barack Obama used the closing day of the fourth Nuclear Security Summit to warn the world of a real threat from nuclear terror, making clear that far too much of the world’s plutonium and enriched uranium are vulnerable to theft and misuse, which might allow what Obama described as “madmen” from terrorist groups to get their hands on enough atomic material to make a radioactive “dirty bomb”.

Obama’s nuclear security summits are not directly focused on nuclear weapons, which are subject to a range of other treaties and disarmament programmes, but on what to do about the disturbingly large range of nuclear material that is scattered around the world.

It is a significant success that 102 countries have now ratified an amendment to a nuclear security treaty that will tighten protections against nuclear theft and smuggling. Dozens of countries have succeeded in safely disposing of bomb-making materials or reducing and safeguarding what stockpiles they have. In Washington this week, Obama said that, “we have measurably reduced the risks”, but he also acknowledged that the initial optimistic goals of the first Nuclear Security Treaty have not been met, with more than 2,000 tonnes of nuclear material still stored around the world and some of it very inadequately. One example of a success is how the US and Japan have completed the long-promised task of removing all highly enriched uranium and separated plutonium fuels from a Japanese research reactor.

The summit suffered from Russia’s refusal to attend, since Russia is one of the major nuclear states and has inherited much of the USSR’s nuclear legacy. Nonetheless, it would be valuable for President Vladimir Putin to continue to implement much of the ideas of the nuclear security programme as it does no one any good to allow any misuse of nuclear material.

For many states, the recent attacks in France and Belgium had sharpened their awareness of the threat from extremists who desire nothing other than to create chaos and terror. If such groups were to use nuclear material to create a dirty bomb, that would take the use of terror to a new level. Obama told the summit that militants associated with the Belgium attack had been tracking the daily routine of a senior manager of a Belgian nuclear plant, indicting a dangerous interest in these materials. This points to how important the work of the Nuclear Security Summit is, and why it should not stop.