American cities are highly susceptible to a crude nuclear attack, according to a report released Wednesday by Harvard researchers.

Entitled “Controlling Nuclear Warheads and Materials: A Report Card and Action Plan,” the report warns of dire consequences unless the U.S. takes a more active role in monitoring and safeguarding nuclear facilities.

“One of our biggest obstacles to action is overcoming the denial that such an attack could occur and the paralysis that comes from believing the job is too overwhelming to be done,” the report says. “It is a big job, no doubt. But it is also measurable and manageable and the world needs to know it.”

The study was commissioned by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a Washington foundation, and written by three experts at the Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

According to the report, current efforts by the U.S. to curb the nuclear holdings of various countries—especially to prevent nuclear warheads from falling into the hands of terrorists—are grossly inadequate.

Assistant Director of the Belfer Center Matthew G. Bunn, one of the reports’ three authors, termed the past efforts of the U.S. to monitor nuclear weapons a “somewhat depressing report card.”

“[The] problem is huge,” Bunn said. “Much less than half the job has been done.”

Bunn said he understands that it is difficult for the U.S. to monitor foreign nuclear facilities because of the secrecy surrounding these facilities.

But he said he is hopeful that the report—with the support of high profile Capitol Hill—will prompt change and urged President Bush to take notice of the issue.

Bunn said that he and his colleagues tried to “lay out specific and doable steps” for the government to follow instead of simply criticizing the current U.S. policy on nuclear management.

Senator Richard B. Lugar (R-IN), a board member of the NTI and the current chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said yesterday that the report is critical to making the case that nuclear materials should be better regulated.

Nick Weber, Lugar’s Deputy Press Secretary, emphasized that the report represents the publicizing of an issue that the Senator has been working on at length.

Weber said the report is especially appropriate now, with the U.S. on the brink of a war in Iraq.

Belfer Center Research associate Anthony Wier and Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy John P. Holdren co-wrote the study with Bunn.