How relevant is the Nuclear Security Summit for China

By Niranjan Sahoo
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, March 31, 2016
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Workers take photos of the pressure vessel of a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) during its installation at the Huaneng Shidao Bay nuclear power plant, east China's Shandong Province, March 20, 2016. [Photo: Xinhua/Guo Xulei]



Expected to be attended by more than 50 world leaders, the fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit (NSS), scheduled to be held in Washington DC, is of immense importance to the international community. Initiated in 2010 by American President Barack Obama, the NSS is a unique effort to secure nuclear materials and prevent the same from getting into the hands of rogue states and non-state actors.

Of course, nuclear security is nothing new to the global community. Beginning with the Non-Proliferation Treaty in the 1960s, the world has taken numerous initiatives to address the dangers of nuclear proliferation. A number of treaties were signed by leading countries in the 1970s to create a nuclear export control regime to prevent proliferation especially among rogue states.

Yet, the breakaway of the Soviet Union and daring terrorist attack like 9/11 escalated the fear of nuclear stockpiles falling into the hands of terrorist groups. Post-9/11 intelligence has shed light on the desperate attempts made by different terrorist networks to accumulate weapons of mass destruction especially radioactive and fissile materials. The emergence of global jihadi groups like al-Qaeda in the early 2000s, and recently the Islamic State (IS), and their open claims to acquire weapons of mass destruction have made the international community more aware of the dangerous scenario.

While it might still be difficult for these groups to develop nuclear weapon making capabilities, there is the growing possibility that these groups can sabotage existing nuclear facilities. The easiest thing they can do is to produce "dirty bombs" or radiological dispersal devices that can devastate cities and towns. Medical devices and equipment with radioactive materials are easily accessible for anyone. The threat is quite apparent and the world can ill afford to naively wait.

Issues before the upcoming summit

Even without strict legal binding obligations from member states, the past summits have made visible progress on many core objectives. For instance, the summit level efforts have led to a down-blending of 15 MT of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium while 12 individual countries have stopped producing HEU and have shut down their nuclear reactors.

Furthermore, the NSS initiatives have yielded the tightening of national laws, rules and the internal capacities of individual countries in protecting and safeguarding nuclear material. The best thing about the NSS initiative is that it has led to the creation of several institutions of excellence, the Nuclear Security Fund and Nuclear Security Training Centers.

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