According to investigators, the terrorists who carried out the attacks had been actively planning to take over and/or target a nuclear power plant. They went so far as to plant hidden cameras at the power plant director's home so they could monitor his movements and even killed a security guard in the process.

The plan, which failed to come to fruition, called not just for suicide bombing several dozen civilians, but for turning Western Europe into radioactive wasteland for the next several thousand years.

The threat is most certainly real and senior officials from Europe to the United States are now warning of the potential for a large-scale nuclear attack:

Security officials warn that the ingredients for a nuclear device or a "dirty bomb" are alarmingly insecure.

"We know that terrorist organizations have the desire to get access to these raw materials and to have a nuclear device," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser.