Countermeasures against illicit trafficking in nuclear material

At the Moscow Nuclear Safety and Security Summit, which was held in April 1996, a Programme for Preventing and Combating Illicit Trafficking in Nuclear Material was adopted. For the implementation of this programme, it is important to provide scientific and technical support for protective, control, investigatory, customs and law enforcement measures, based on a knowledge of those specific characteristics of nuclear material and special non-nuclear material which would enable it to be identified. The organizations of the Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation are attempting to create the following: (a) equipment for operational detection of nuclear, special non-nuclear and radioactive material (law enforcement bodies responsible for preventing illicit trafficking in nuclear material will be equipped with these facilities); (b) equipment for identifying material found in illicit trafficking; and (c) information systems to determine the probable sources of illicit trafficking. With a view to solving the scientific and technical problems of preventing illicit trafficking, collaborative efforts are being developed in the organizations of the Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation, the US Department of Energy, and the Joint Research Institute of the European Commission, with the involvement of scientific organizations from other interested countries. A start has been made with setting up an international scientific programme for preventing illicit trafficking in which the scientific research institutes of the Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States of America, and the Institute for Transuranium Elements of the Joint Research Institute of the European Commission are taking part. The State Committee for Nuclear Weapons has been entrusted with the overall co-ordination of the implementation of the programme to prevent illicit trafficking by a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation has been given the task of organizing the international negotiations. The Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation sees its role in this programme as that of the only competent body capable of solving the technical problems of detecting, identifying and determining the probable sources of nuclear material found in illicit trafficking.