Energy Department outlines plan for securing nuclear materials

The Energy Department Wednesday announced a $450 million initiative to keep terrorists from acquiring nuclear materials that could be used to build a nuclear or radiological weapon.

Large quantities of spent fuel and radiological sources must be secured or disposed of from hundreds of aging or decommissioned research reactors to ensure the nuclear material does not fall into the wrong hands, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said in a speech to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

"The recent revelations of the complex network established by A.Q. Khan give startling scope to the nonproliferation challenge we collectively face," Abraham said. "Coupled with the horrific attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Bali, and, most recently, Madrid, we are forced to assume that rogue states and terrorists, in concert with for-profit proliferators, will act vigorously to achieve their ends," he added.

In response to what Abraham called an "evolving proliferation threat" posed by nuclear materials, the United States is set to establish a new organization within the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration.

The Global Threat Reduction Initiative will focus exclusively on efforts to "secure, remove, or dispose of" a broad range of "nuclear and radiological materials around the world that are vulnerable to theft," Abraham said.

The U.S. plan calls for:

• Partnering with Russia to repatriate all Russian-origin fresh highly enriched uranium fuel by the end of 2005 and accelerate and complete the return of all Russian-origin spent fuel by 2010. Such projects would be undertaken on a priority basis according to the degree of the security threat posed in each case.
• Accelerating and completing the repatriation of all U.S.-origin research reactor spent fuel under an existing U.S. program from locations around the world within a decade.
• Working to convert the cores of civilian research reactors that use highly enriched uranium to instead use low-enriched uranium fuel, both in the United States and worldwide.
• Identifying other nuclear and radiological materials and related equipment not yet covered by existing threat reduction efforts and, addressing the most vulnerable facilities first, fill any gaps that would allow a terrorist to acquire such materials.

"We will need more funds -- and heightened international cooperation -- to finish the job," Abraham said. "Dedicated as we are to this effort, it is also clear to me that a truly effective nonproliferation regime is made up of the collaboration of efforts by all of us, not just a few. This is particularly the case regarding the collection of materials that are not of Russian or American origin, or that may be located in places where cooperation requires a broader international effort, and that pose certain challenges that the United States and Russia cannot address alone," he added.

The Energy secretary proposed that a Global Threat Reduction Initiative Partners' Conference be scheduled for this fall. He said the event would examine methods of nuclear material collection and security in locations worldwide where a broader international effort is necessary.

Abraham is scheduled to travel to Moscow Thursday and is expected to sign a bilateral agreement with Russia formalizing elements of the initiative involving that country.

"We are very close to a government-to-government agreement to go from an ad hoc to a more formalized and very systematic program to retrieve fresh and spent fuel and convert reactors to work without them," Abraham said, according to the Financial Times.