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Publication Laka-library:
Report Series no.106 - Terrorism: The nuclear threat (1981)

AuthorCitizens Energy Project
Date1981*
Classification 6.02.0.00/03 (NUCLEAR TERRORISM - GENERAL)
Front

From the publication:

TERRORISM: The Nuclear Threat

by SCOTT DENMAN

INTRODUCTION

On Tuesday, November 4, 1975, the secretary for Fred Hartley, Chairman of the
Board of Union Oil, received an airmail letter with no return address. The contents
were startling. In part, the letter read: "…You will not call the authorities or use
any electronic surveillance equipment. You could trigger the bomb accidentally and it
will be very dirty… If you fail to carry out all of these orders we will send a copy
of this letter to the news media with instructions to evacuate California and we will
trigger the device, there will be billions of dollars of damage and Los Angeles will
be sterile for a long time. " (1) This threat prompted the FBI and the Energy Research
and Development Administration (ERDA) to "scramble" NEST. NEST or the Nuclear
Emergency Search Team, headquarter in Las Vegas, was created for just such an
emergency. By dawn on the 6th, 30 bomb experts, security agents and scientists
began an exhaustive ground search of Union Oil's six facilities in the Los Angeles
area, 45 more agents were on their way from all parts of the country.

*) Estimated date

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