Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 24. Juli 2006 / Time Line July 24, 2006
Version 3.507/24/2006
Significant step in fight to prevent nuclear terrorism
By: Sam Nunn, Co-Chairman, Nuclear Threat Initiative
At the recent G8 meeting in Russia, U.S. President George Bush and
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a new joint effort
– the “Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear
Terrorism.”
While the critical events in the Middle East may have overshadowed
their announcement, this is a significant step. I commend both
Presidents for this initiative, which shows a strong personal
commitment to preventing nuclear terrorism -- the greatest threat
we face.
The hardest step for terrorists to take to detonate a nuclear
weapon is getting their hands on nuclear material. This is the
easiest step for us to stop. Every subsequent step in the process
-- making a bomb, smuggling it into the country -- gets easier for
the terrorists and harder for us. That's why the chain of nuclear
security is only as strong as its weakest link. With nuclear
weapons materials in more than 40 countries, global cooperation is
critical.
All the right words are in the official statement, and this
announcement is very encouraging to those of us who have been in
this arena for a long time. As we have seen in the past, however,
there can be a big gap between words and deeds, a big gap between
pledges and programs, and a big gap between goals and
accomplishments.
Toward the end of the Presidents’ joint statement, they
emphasize the need “to mobilize the largest possible number
of nations to improve national capabilities to combat nuclear
terrorism” and that outreach to “the public is
necessary to effect the full implementation of the
Initiative.”
http://en.g8russia.ru/docs/7.html
The Presidents are right. Each of us must do more to raise
awareness about the threat and tell our leaders that we agree we
must continue to spread the word and build support for cooperative
efforts to secure nuclear weapons materials around the world. As a
member of the Safer World Action Network, you are already doing
your part to stay informed about these important issues.
At NTI, we have long been advocating for this sort of global
initiative and cooperation. We recently highlighted the need for
urgent action when we released “Securing the Bomb
2006,” an annual assessment prepared by Harvard University
researchers Matthew Bunn and Anthony Wier of the Managing the Atom
Project on the progress being made to secure nuclear weapons and
materials around the world. This report again showed that a
significant gap remains between the nuclear terrorism threat and
efforts to keep materials out of terrorist hands. Among the
findings:
Security and accounting upgrades are accelerating in Russia, but
dangerous nuclear theft threats remain in Russia and worldwide.
Russia’s Minister of Interior recently confirmed that
“international terrorists” were planning attacks to
“seize nuclear materials and use them to build weapons of
mass destruction,” and that in April 2006, a group of
conspirators was arrested with 22 kilograms of low-enriched uranium
stolen from Elektrostal – a plant that also processes tons of
weapons-usable highly enriched uranium (HEU), where multiple thefts
have occurred before.
The U.S. government now says there are 128 nuclear research
reactors or associated facilities around the world with enough
highly enriched uranium to potentially make a bomb – more
facilities than has been previously publicly recognized.
“Neither the U.S. government nor any other government or
organization around the world has a complete picture of all the
factors involved in prioritizing where the most urgent threats of
nuclear theft lie.”
These gaps must be filled by determined, focused leaders.
Presidents Bush and Putin have chartered the course – now
every day, every week, every month for the rest of their terms in
office, they must assign clear responsibility and demand
accountability from their respective governments.
 |
 |