Even in the completely IMPOSSIBLE event that they came within 100 yards of anything nuclear without being shot, it's not as if nuclear torpedos are like MANPADs or much less like a simple gun. Can't just walk off with a nuke and fire it at will. Even a freaking hellfire is completely inert without the proper firing mechanisms.
But ya, they would have been shot had they come even close to the nukes. The fact that they were simply arrested shows just how far away from any sort of serious security breach they were and/or just how little of a threat they were viewed as.