World leaders agree to secure nuclear material - Summary

Tue, 13 Apr 2010

Washington - Leaders and top officials from more than 40 countries agreed on Tuesday to take steps to better secure dangerous nuclear material to prevent it from being used in a terrorist attack.

The agreement was reached during a summit hosted by US President Barack Obama designed the reduce the possibility of nuclear material winding up in the wrong hands, and as part of his goal to rid the world of atomic weapons.

The 47 countries attending the largest summit hosted by an American president in more than six decades promised to cooperate in securing nuclear stockpiles within four years and at curtailing proliferation. They also agreed to strengthen existing international safeguards for nuclear material and give a greater role in the effort to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear monitoring body.

Reining in the threat posed by vulnerable nuclear material to keep it from being used in a possible terrorist attack has emerged as a top priority for President Barack Obama. He outlined the goal in a speech in Prague a year ago.

In opening the full day of talks on Tuesday, Obama described the potential of a nuclear terrorist attack as among the greatest threats to the world and warned that the danger has increased since the end of the Cold War.

"Terrorist networks such as al-Qaeda have tried to acquire the material for a nuclear weapon. And if they ever succeeded, they would surely use it," Obama said. "Were they to do so, it would be a catastrophe for the world, causing extraordinary loss of life and striking a major blow to global peace and stability."

"Two decades after the end of the Cold War, we face a cruel irony of history," Obama said. "The risk of a nuclear confrontation between nations has gone down, but the risk of nuclear attack has gone up."

The countries also agreed to move away from highly enriched uranium - the key ingredient in a nuclear weapon - in power plants and adopt the much safer low enriched fuel.

The United States and Russia also pledged to dispose of large amounts of weapons-grade plutonium stockpiles.

Obama announced plans to hold a follow-up summit in South Korea in 2012.

"We have the opportunity as individual nations to take specific and concrete actions to secure the nuclear materials in our countries and to prevent illicit trafficking and smuggling," he said.

Ukraine announced during the summit plans to give up highly enriched uranium by 2012 as part of a broader, long standing effort led by the United States and Russia to take back the dangerous fuel and convert civilian reactors into using the much safer low enriched uranium.

Canada and Mexico also announced plans to abandon the use of highly enriched uranium and send it back to the United States. Right before the summit, Chile shipped the last of its weapons-grade uranium to the US.

The nations also agreed to cooperate in law enforcement and intelligence to apprehend and prosecute individuals involved inn the trade of illicit material on the black market.

While the focus of the summit is on securing nuclear stockpiles, Iran's continued defiance of international demands to halt uranium enrichment and come clean about its nuclear activities has been a sub-text at the gathering. Iran denies Western allegations that its nuclear program is designed to achieve a weapons capability.

The topic was high on the agenda when Obama met with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday as part of an effort to persuade a reluctant Beijing to support tougher UN Security Council sanctions. A senior White House official told reporters after the meeting that China signaled a willingness to cooperate in drafting sanctions.

Getting China on board would be a huge step for Obama, who already has the support of Britain and France, who along with China, Russia and the United States are permanent members of the Security Council. Even Russia as of late has shown a willingness to consider sanctions.

Obama also meet with the leaders of India, Pakistan, South Africa, Jordan and a number of other countries before convening the formal session.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signed the deal to implement an agreement requiring both countries to dispose of 34 metric tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium from existing stockpiles.

The amount is enough to build 17,000 nuclear weapons, the US State Department said.

The United States has pledged to provide Russia with 400 million dollars for Moscow's effort. Both countries plan to begin 2018 and it is expected to take years to complete. Washington and Moscow agreed to the plan in 2000, but until now could come to terms on how to implement it.

The summit came after a US-Russian pact to reduce their existing nuclear arsenals by one-third, a treaty Obama signed Thursday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. It also comes after Obama announced a shift in nuclear policy that pledged to not use nuclear weapons against countries which do not have them. That policy, however, excluded Iran and North Korea because they are not seen as cooperating on non-proliferation.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/318536,world-leaders-agree-to-secure-nuclear-material--summary.html.