Nuclear Security & Deterrence Vol. 18 No. 13
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Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor
Article 5 of 19
June 24, 2014

NATIONS AT NUKE SECURITY SUMMIT TO STRENGTHEN SECURITY FRAMEWORK

By Martin Schneider

Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
3/28/2014

Thirty-five nations at the Nuclear Security Summit in The Netherlands this week agreed to an initiative that would strengthen the international nuclear security architecture, highlighting the third gathering of international leaders to deal with strengthening nuclear security around the world. In all, leaders from 58 countries assembled in The Hague, offering various pledges to beef up security, but in this third summit, attention turned to creating a nuclear security architecture that will outlast the summit process. A joint statement drafted by the U.S., South Korea and The Netherlands takes the biggest step toward that goal, with 35 countries agreeing to implement nuclear security recommendations from the International Atomic Energy Agency and engage in peer reviews to beef up nuclear security practices. The effort was viewed as an attempt at establishing a global nuclear security architecture, which experts have suggested has been lacking. The provisions in the joint statement are the “closest things we have to international standards for nuclear security,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told reporters at the summit.

The pledge was signed by several countries that possess nuclear weapons and nuclear materials, including the United Kingdom, France, Israel, and Kazakhstan, but included several notable omissions, including Russia, China, India, and Pakistan. “The initiative shows commitment to take the lead when it comes to voluntary implementation of a number of IAEA recommendations and guidelines,” former Dutch Ambassador to the IAEA John Bernhard said in a statement. “Hopefully, there will be an ambitious follow-up in the United States in 2016 aiming at the continuous improvement of nuclear security.” Twenty-three countries at the summit, including the United States, also committed to stronger protection of materials that could be made into a dirty bomb, pledging to follow IAEA guidelines for the protection of Category I radiological sources.

Nuke Terrorism Still Tops Obama’s List of Concerns

The pledges and progress reflect what President Obama said was still his top concern: nuclear terrorism. During a press conference after the hearing, he emphasized that his concern about nuclear terrorism even outweighed concern about Russia’s actions in Ukraine. “So my response then continues to be what I believe today, which is: Russia’s actions are a problem.,” he said. “They don’t pose the number one national security threat to the United States. I continue to be much more concerned when it comes to our security with the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan.”

Summit Returning to U.S. in 2016

Obama also announced that the Nuclear Security Summit is returning to the United States for its swan song in 2016, sparking some confusion about the summit’s precise location in the process. During a closing address at the current summit, Obama initially mentioned Chicago as the site of the 2016 summit, then later suggested the summit would return to Washington, where it began in 2010. The White House later clarified that no decision on the exact location of the summit had been made.

In his remarks, Obama said the 2016 summit would be a “transition summit in which heads of state and government are still participating, but that we are shifting toward a more sustainable model that utilizes our ministers, our technical people, and we are building some sort of architecture that can effectively focus and implement on these issues and supplement the good work that is being done by the IAEA and others.” He added: “I think it is important for us not to relax, but rather accelerate our efforts over the next two years, sustain momentum so that we finish strong in 2016.”

Japan, Belgium, Italy Announce Removals

As expected, the Obama Administration also announced plans for disposal of highly enriched uranium and plutonium in Japan as well as the removal of material from Belgium and Italy at the summit this week. Japan and the United States pledged to remove all plutonium and HEU from Japan’s Fast Critical Assembly in Tokai, which adds up to “hundreds of kilograms of nuclear material,” according to a joint U.S. and Japanese statement. “This material, once securely transported to the United States, will be sent to a secure facility and fully converted into less sensitive forms. The plutonium will be prepared for final disposition. The HEU will be downblended to low enriched uranium (LEU) and utilized for civilian purposes,” according to the statement.

At the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit, Belgium and Italy committed to removing highly enriched uranium and plutonium to the United States by this year’s meeting. This week, Belgium and the United States announced they have completed the removal of “a significant amount” of excess HEU and plutonium, according to a statement. Italy and the United States March 24 announced the removal of about 20 kilograms of HEU and plutonium. “This removal entailed extremely complex operations that required the development of new gloveboxes for plutonium packaging, the development of a new process to convert HEU from a solution to an oxide, the coordination of uranium shipments from three separate locations, the development of novel packaging configurations for the consolidation of plutonium materials within Italy, and the training and certification of personnel for specialized packaging operations,” according to the statement.

Canada Returns HEU to U.S.

Canada also announced during the summit that it was returning enough HEU for one warhead to the United States. Canada said that approximately 100 pounds of the weapons-grade HEU was being sent from its Chalk River nuclear site back to an undisclosed location in the U.S., which is believed to be the Y-12 National Security Complex. The material was from thousands of targets that had originally been provided to Canada by the U.S. for use in medical isotope production. “What’s been valuable about this summit is that it has not just been talk, it’s been action,” Obama said in a closing address at the summit. “And that is because of the leadership that has been shown by heads of state and government.”

Countries Commit to Developing LEU Fuel

In other news at the summit, the U.S., Belgium, France, Germany and South Korea agreed to accelerate the development and qualification of new high-density low-enriched uranium fuel that could help convert research reactors from using highly enriched uranium. The countries—with the exception of Germany—have been working together since 2012 on the effort, which is focused on uranium molybdenum that could be used as a monolithic fuel foil and as a powder in an aluminum matrix, but in a joint statement, they said the process would be “strengthened by intensified and coordinated collaboration that will contribute directly to the ultimate goal of minimizing HEU in civilian use. Cooperation and support from the international community are crucial for making available LEU fuel that is suitable for high performance research reactors, and we agree to share the benefits of all technology developed together in this joint effort, with conditions to be set out in due time.”

The United States also reaffirmed its commitment to continue developing efforts to use low-enriched uranium as a replacement fuel for research reactors and in the production of medical isotopes, according to a National Progress Report from the White House for the Nuclear Security Summit this week. The U.S. along with other international partners has been supporting an effort to convert European medical isotope production from highly enriched uranium to safer LEU to ease proliferation concerns. “The United States, in cooperation with multiple international partners, intends to continue to lead efforts to develop new research reactor fuels to allow for the conversion of the remaining high performance research reactors both in the United States and abroad to the use of LEU fuel,” the report said. The report also added, “The United States intends to establish an international research effort on the feasibility of replacing high activity radiological sources with non-isotopic replacement technologies, with the goal of producing a global alternative by 2016.The United States intends to demonstrate commercial capability to produce the medical isotope molybdenum-99 in the United States using non-HEU technologies by 2016,” it said.

The National Nuclear Security Administration has been helping to jump start domestic production of medical isotopes through a cost-sharing cooperative agreement with four companies to develop technology to produce Moly-99, the medical isotope used in 16 million medical procedures annually in the United States. The isotope has typically been produced outside the U.S. by government-subsidized efforts utilizing proliferation-sensitive HEU. Two of the companies, GE Hitachi and B&W, involved in the NNSA’s cost-sharing agreement have halted its development due to concerns of market viability.

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