NPPP Reiterates DOD Relationship to Report

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 21, 2013

Prof. Alan J. Kuperman, Coordinator of the NPPP, today issued the following statement:

Some commentators, unaffiliated with the NPPP, have mischaracterized the recent NPPP working paper on nuclear security – “Protecting U.S. Nuclear Facilities from Terrorist Attack: Re-assessing the Current ‘Design Basis Threat’ Approach” – as produced or released by the Pentagon. The working paper was written for, submitted to, and partially funded by the Department of Defense, as part of a larger inter-disciplinary study at the University of Texas at Austin on Nuclear Risk Assessment and Rare Event Characterization, under a DOD contract. The report was released publicly by the NPPP, not by the Pentagon, which did not produce the report. This statement reiterates the origins of the working paper, as stated clearly on its cover page and as further elucidated at the press event of August 15, 2013.