vulnerability to swift and forceful government action during the period between nuclear theft and completion of the fabrication of fission explosive devices or radiological weapons.

The ability of a government, whether U.S. or foreign, to deal with an emergent terrorist nuclear threat would depend on the location of the group's base of operations, particularly the location of its weapon manufacturing facilities. This may be unknown and hard to determine, or it may be located on territory subject to the jurisdiction of a government that is for some reason not prepared to take decisive action against the group involved.

Once a terrorist group possesses fission explosives or radiological weapons, the group's options for their coercive use, both aggressively and to deter enforcement action against it, cover the complete range of options discussed previously for an individual acting alone and for profit-oriented criminal groups. However, if a terrorist group were involved, doubts concerning the credibility of many options previously considered would be substantially removed, and the inner logic of the possibilities for nuclear coercion would control. These possibilities would be exploited by a group of people who might be quite free of the practical, intellectual, or emotional restraints that tend to inhibit the use of violence by other groups.