A crucial amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) is only weeks from entering into force, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday.
The 2005 amendment would expand the accord’s authority from covering international transport of nuclear material used for peaceful purposes to requiring protection for such material in storage, use, and domestic transport. Two-thirds of the 153 CPPNM member states must ratify the amendment for it to enter into force – 102 had done so by Wednesday, leaving six ratifications to go, according to a White House fact sheet.
However, a late rush of ratifications this week by Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Kuwait, and Montenegro reduced that number to just two, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Friday.
“As a result, we expect that the treaty will enter into force in the coming weeks — giving us more tools that we need to work together in the event of theft of nuclear material or an attack on a nuclear facility,” Obama said in Washington, D.C., at the opening of the fourth Nuclear Security Summit. “Several of the nations here made the extra effort in recent weeks to complete this process in time for this summit.”
The treaty would take effect 30 days after the last necessary national approval is reached, the White House said. Entry into force means the amendment is legally binding and enables “the IAEA to convene regular review conferences on the implementation of the treaty,” according to the facet sheet.
The summit, the last of four under the Obama administration, has brought together over 50 world leaders to discuss the prevention of nuclear terrorism and put forth country commitments to secure nuclear materials and facilities. It seeks to build upon progress made since the 2009 speech in Prague in which Obama outlined an ambitious U.S. nonproliferation agenda. Since then, over 3.2 metric tons of HEU and plutonium have been eliminated or disposed of, and 13 countries and Taiwan have become HEU-free.
“To date, our nations have made some 260 specific commitments to improve nuclear security, and so far, three-fourths of these steps have been implemented,” Obama said at the opening plenary. A number of additional nations announced new milestones in their efforts to reduce or eliminate their reliance on nuclear weapon-usable highly enriched uranium.
The U.S. and Japan announced Friday at the summit that all HEU and separated plutonium fuel has been removed from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency’s Fast Critical Assembly, as pledged at the 2014 summit. The two countries also announced they would remove all HEU fuel from the Kyoto University Critical Assembly and send it to the U.S. for downblending. Also at the summit, the U.S. and Indonesia announced that all unirradiated HEU in Indonesia was downblended to low-enriched uranium and that the two nations would work to eliminate all remaining HEU in the country by this September. Meanwhile, Argentina announced that it has disposed of all of its remaining HEU – which totaled more than 40 kilograms — making it and the Latin America region HEU-free, and Germany announced the removal of excess plutonium and HEU from the country for storage in the U.S.
The White House released a fact sheet highlighted global accomplishments through the summit process that included the removal or downblending of highly enriched uranium and plutonium from over 50 facilities in 30 countries and the adoption of legal commitments such as the amended physical protection convention, which was ratified by over 80 countries since 2009. The White House also highlighted the over 15 states that have opened Nuclear Security Training and Support Centers and other nuclear security Centers of Excellence to support their nuclear workforce training requirements.
In its national progress report, the U.S. noted that since the 2014 summit it has conducted over 300 nuclear and radiological security workshops with international partners; strengthened radiological security at 115 buildings in 34 countries; disposed of 5 metric tons of weapon-usable highly enriched uranium in the country; decreased its inventory of HEU by over 20 percent; participated in the removal or dispositioning of over 250 kilograms of nuclear material worldwide; conducted over 310 training courses in radiation detection system operation and response to counter nuclear smuggling; and contributed an additional $17.5 million to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Nuclear Security Fund in 2014 and $13 million in 2015.
International Community Statements and Commitments
National statements and security pledges – or “gift baskets” – are expected to be released during today’s proceedings. Brazil today made a strong call for global nuclear disarmament and a “total elimination of nuclear weapons.” The joint statement by 16 nations, including Brazil, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, and Egypt, said that the international community “has the right to demand” that states “irreversibly eliminate their nuclear arsenals and their huge stocks of weapon-grade materials,” arguing that nuclear security “cannot be strengthened if we confine our efforts to the relatively small quantity of nuclear materials in peaceful use, while ignoring the dangers posed by the vast quantities of materials involved in nuclear weapons programs.”
Another gift basket on behalf of over two dozen states – including Belgium, Germany, the U.S., South Korea, and the U.K.– offers states’ support of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s development of advanced training courses to prevent and mitigate insider threats and outlines the development of national-level policies on insider threat mitigation.
A U.S.-Netherlands statement encouraged future scenario-based policy discussions and events on nuclear terrorism emergency response similar to the Apex Gold exercise the U.S. Department of Energy hosted earlier this year at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. A U.S.-China statement highlighted China’s commitment to convert its remaining miniature neutron source reactors at Shenzhen University to LEU and work through the IAEA to assist in the conversion of the same Chinese-origin reactors worldwide, including in Ghana and Nigeria.
Thomas Countryman, assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, announced yesterday alongside Norwegian Ambassador to the U.S. Kare Aas the signing of a memorandum of understanding through which the two governments will collaborate on projects to counter nuclear smuggling. Activities will include assistance to Ukraine through inter-ministerial coordination, criminal investigations, and smuggler prosecutions, the statement said.
A civil society gift basket announced this week by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation pledges up to $25 million in 2016 and 2017 for global nuclear security work conducted through civil society. The statement said civil society partners offer “an analytic foundation” and “innovative solutions” for the activities carried out by governments.
