Concerns over scenarios involving nuclear accidents or incidents on American soil reach back decades. As early as the 1960s, officials were concerned that a nuclear weapon might be smuggled into the country or that an airplane carrying a nuclear weapon might crash and contaminate surrounding areas. In late 1974, the
FBI received a communication from an
extortionist who wanted $200,000 () and claimed that a nuclear weapon had been placed somewhere in
Boston. President
Gerald Ford was warned, and a team of experts from the
United States Atomic Energy Commission rushed in, but their radiation detection gear arrived at a different airport. Federal officials then resorted to renting a fleet of vans to carry concealed
radiation detectors around the city, but the officials forgot to bring the tools they needed to install the equipment. The incident was later found to be a
hoax. However, the government's response highlighted the need for an agency capable of effectively responding to such threats in the future. Later that year, President Ford created the Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST), which under the
Atomic Energy Act is tasked with investigating the 'illegal use of nuclear materials within the United States, including terrorist threats involving the use of special nuclear materials'. One of NEST's first responses was in
Spokane, Washington, on November 23, 1976. An unknown group called Omega mailed an
extortion threat claiming they would explode containers of radioactive water all over the city unless they were paid $500,000 (). Presumably, the containers had been stolen from the
Hanford Site, less than to the southwest. NEST immediately flew in a support aircraft from
Las Vegas and began searching for non-natural radiation but found nothing. Despite the elaborate instructions initially given by Omega, no further contact was received, and no one made any attempt to claim the (fake) money, which was kept under surveillance. Within days, the incident was deemed a hoax, though the case was never solved. To avoid panic, the public was not notified until a few years later. One of the more high-profile responses in NEST’s early history took place in August 1980
when several men planted a sophisticated bomb containing 1,000 pounds of dynamite at
Harvey's Resort Hotel in
Stateline, Nevada. In addition to
explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) personnel from the FBI, NEST experts were brought in to assist in diagnosing and defeating the device. However, attempts to disarm the bomb were unsuccessful, the bomb exploded and caused extensive damage to the hotel and nearby buildings. The limitations of the tactics, tools, and procedures used in the response to the casino bomb—coupled with the fear that a similarly complex device might contain nuclear or radiological material—led to sweeping improvements in NEST’s device defeat capabilities. A more recent example of a NEST deployment was its response to the
2011 nuclear disaster at the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in
Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The event, primarily caused by the
2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, resulted in the most severe nuclear accident since the
Chernobyl disaster in 1986. NEST personnel with expertise in atmospheric modeling, aerial measuring, and health physics were deployed to
Japan shortly after the disaster occurred. The scientific advice that NEST provided during this emergency was crucial to informing the responses of both the U.S. and Japanese governments to protect public health. == Today ==