From Fierce Homeland Security:
Weapons-grade nuclear material at risk of theft, says NTI
By David Perera
Comment
Forward
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Weapons-grade nuclear material located in some countries continues to be at risk of theft or diversion despite global progress over the past two decades to eliminate stocks, says a report from the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
Those materials today are stored at hundreds of sites in 32 countries, the non-profit Washington, D.C.-based watchdog says in a Jan. 11 report.
"Some of those sites are well secured. Many are not, leaving weapons-usable nuclear materials vulnerable to theft or sale on the black market to terrorist organizations that have publicly stated their desire to use nuclear weapons," the report adds.
In the report, the NTI rates countries according to their ability to secure and control weapons-grade material, their commitment to global norms such as materials transparency, their domestic commitments to adopt safeguards, the quantity of materials in their possession and societal factors such as overall country stability.
Of the nine countries that possess nuclear weapons (the NTI includes Israel in that list, which formally maintains that it does not possess such a weapon, although it doesn't deny it, either), the NTI ranks the United Kingdom as the country with the most nuclear material security, followed closely by the United States. Mere quantity of weapons-grade material is a negative factor on the list, however.
Russia, the report says, has "made tremendous progress in securing its weapons usable nuclear material." China, meanwhile, lacks transparency and could vastly improve international confidence in its ability to control materials by disclosing what security measures it has in place, the report says.
The NTI calls for a number of new measures, including an international system for tracking, protecting and managing weapons-grade materials.
"This is not a call for states to reveal so much information that they compromise national and global security interests; rather, it is a call for states to build essential international confidence in their materials security practices by providing greater access to relevant security practices," the report states.
Weapons-grade nuclear material at risk of theft, says NTI
By David Perera
Comment
Forward
Weapons-grade nuclear material located in some countries continues to be at risk of theft or diversion despite global progress over the past two decades to eliminate stocks, says a report from the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
Those materials today are stored at hundreds of sites in 32 countries, the non-profit Washington, D.C.-based watchdog says in a Jan. 11 report.
"Some of those sites are well secured. Many are not, leaving weapons-usable nuclear materials vulnerable to theft or sale on the black market to terrorist organizations that have publicly stated their desire to use nuclear weapons," the report adds.
In the report, the NTI rates countries according to their ability to secure and control weapons-grade material, their commitment to global norms such as materials transparency, their domestic commitments to adopt safeguards, the quantity of materials in their possession and societal factors such as overall country stability.
Of the nine countries that possess nuclear weapons (the NTI includes Israel in that list, which formally maintains that it does not possess such a weapon, although it doesn't deny it, either), the NTI ranks the United Kingdom as the country with the most nuclear material security, followed closely by the United States. Mere quantity of weapons-grade material is a negative factor on the list, however.
Russia, the report says, has "made tremendous progress in securing its weapons usable nuclear material." China, meanwhile, lacks transparency and could vastly improve international confidence in its ability to control materials by disclosing what security measures it has in place, the report says.
The NTI calls for a number of new measures, including an international system for tracking, protecting and managing weapons-grade materials.
"This is not a call for states to reveal so much information that they compromise national and global security interests; rather, it is a call for states to build essential international confidence in their materials security practices by providing greater access to relevant security practices," the report states.
No comments:
Post a Comment