May 14, 2007

U.S. asked to clarify funding issues regarding Russian chemical weapons disposal facility
Interfax- Russia's Audit Chamber has asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to help resolve problems related to the funding of the construction of a Russian chemical weapons disposal facility in Shchuchye, Kurgan region. More.

May 10, 2007

NNSA signs nuke security pact with NZ
UPI- The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration said Wednesday it had joined forces with New Zealand to fight global nuclear terrorism. "Under an agreement signed with NNSA's Second Line of Defense program, New Zealand will provide approximately $460,000 for nuclear non-proliferation work in Ukraine," the NNSA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy, said in a statement. More.

U.S. Congress overturns Pentagon's foot-drag on Russian chemical weapons
RIA Novosti- The U.S. 2008 defense budget approved by the House Armed Service Committee Thursday includes $42.7 million to help Russia complete a chemical weapons destruction site, despite the Administration's failure to ask for the money. More.

May 7, 2007

UK, France announce new chemical disarmament project in Russia
Interfax- France and the United Kingdom are launching a new joint project to support Russia's chemical disarmament effort within the G8 Global Partnership. More.

Canada to help Ukraine beef up airport and border security
AFP- Canada will help upgrade security at airports and border crossings in Ukraine to prevent nuclear terrorism, with a gift of five million Canadian dollars (4.5 million US), Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said Monday. More.

May 4, 2007

Sergei Ivanov checked readiness for destruction of chemical weapons
Rossiyskaya Gazeta- The Bryansk Region is one of the six Russian regions where poisonous combat substances have been deposited for years. In 1997, Russia undertook a gradual liquidation of its stockpile of poisonous combat substances. Yesterday, Senior Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov checked the progress of these obligations. More.

April 23, 2007

Russia's claim on chemical weapons destruction target "disingenuous" - paper
Nezavisimaya Gazeta- Last Friday, 20 April, in the city of Kambarka, which is 200 km from Izhevsk, capital of Udmurtia, a major event happened. Russia reported to the international Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW, headquarters The Hague) that it had fulfilled the second stage of the requirements of the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The Russian Federation has gotten rid of 8,456 tonnes of chemical weapons - more than 20 per cent of its stockpile. More.

April 19, 2007

Sweden allocating 5 million dollars to Russian nuclear safety in 2007
ITAR-TASS- Sweden is allocating 5m dollars to nuclear safety in Russia this year, Aasa Gustafsson, an official from the Swedish Foreign Ministry's department for disarmament and non-proliferation in the CIS countries [as received, probably the department for disarmament and non-proliferation], said today in her speech at the public dialogue forum "Nuclear Energy, Society, Security". More.

April 6, 2007

First of four pontoons built at Russian plant under Global Partnership programme
Interfax- The first of four unique pontoons, designed to ensure safe transportation of decommissioned nuclear submarines, has been built at the Snezhnogorsk shipyard Nerpa (Murmansk Region). More.

March 29, 2007

Russian nuclear sub being decommissioned for Canadian cash
ITAR-TASS- The decommissioning of the seventh nuclear submarine has started at Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk on the money allocated by Canada, Nadezhda Shcherbinina, press secretary of the plant, told today ITAR-TASS news agency.  More.

March 28, 2007

U.S., Vietnam to begin Nonproliferation Project at Dalat Reactor
Inside Missile Defense- U.S. and Vietnamese officials have signed contracts to start converting the Dalat research reactor in Vietnam to burn low-enriched uranium rather than highly enriched uranium, the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration announced earlier this month. More.

March 27, 2007

Outside View: Scrapping chemical weapons
United Press International- The executive council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons met in The Hague in the middle of March. It reviewed the obligations that had been fulfilled in 2006 by signatories to the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and made plans for the future. The meeting was also attended by a Russian delegation, which had many things to report to those in attendance. More.

March 26, 2007

NZ To Contribute To Combating Nuclear Smuggling
New Zealand Government Press Release- New Zealand will join a US-led project helping to combat nuclear smuggling as part of an international project against weapons of mass destruction, Prime Minister Helen Clark announced today. More.

March 19, 2007

Analysis of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Fiscal Year 2008 Cooperative Threat Reduction Budget Request
PGS Policy Update- The Department of Defense (DOD) Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) budget proposed for fiscal year (FY) 2008 is approximately $348 million. This budget is $24 million less than the FY07 appropriated level of $372.2 million. More.

March 13, 2007

Efforts to Secure Radiological Materials
Charles D Ferguson- What is the Nature of the Radiological Terrorism Threat? Mr. Chairman, practically all nuclear and radiological security analysts agree that the probability of a dirty bomb attack is much greater than the probability of a nuclear bomb attack from a terrorist group. There is also broad agreement that the consequences of a nuclear bomb attack are far greater than the damage from a dirty bomb attack. Many analysts, including myself, have said that it is all but inevitable that the United States or some other country will experience a radiological attack. The question is, though: Why hasn't such an attack already happened? To answer this question, it helps to think like a detective. More.

March 2007

GTRI: More Than Two and a Half Successful Years of Reducing Nuclear Threats
NNSA Fact Sheet- On May 26, 2004, the National Nuclear Security Administration established the Global Threat Reduction Initiative. GTRI, as it is known, works to identify, secure, remove and/or facilitate the disposition of high risk vulnerable nuclear and radiological materials around the world, as quickly as possible, that pose a threat to the United States and the international community.
Since May 2004 and through February 2007, GTRI has removed more than nine nuclear bombs worth of highly enriched uranium and secured more than 470 radiological sites around the world containing over 7.7 million curies, enough for approximately 7,700 dirty bombs. More.

March 12, 2007

The Unthinkable: Can the United States be made safe from nuclear terrorism?
New Yorker- In October, 2005, a radiation sensor at the Port of Colombo, in Sri Lanka, signalled that the contents of an outbound shipping container included radioactive material. The port’s surveillance system, installed with funds from the National Nuclear Security Administration, an agency within the Department of Energy, wasn’t yet in place, so the container was loaded and sent to sea before it could be identified. More.

March 2, 2007

Putin Moves a Step Closer to Ratifying CTR Umbrella Agreement
Bellona- Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted a protocol to the State Duma to increase nuclear, chemical and biological weapons security cooperation with the United States by extending the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) programme, which has been dismantling these threats in the former Soviet Union for the last 15 years. More.

March 1, 2007

Atoms for Peace Revisited: A New Agenda for U.S.-Russian Nuclear Leadership
Carnegie Moscow Center- I am delighted to meet with all of you this evening. I can think of no better place to discuss prospects for U.S.-Russian nuclear cooperation than the Carnegie Moscow Center, which has done so much to stimulate creativity and collaboration on this crucial issue in recent years. More.

U.S. Eliminates New Funding for Russian CW Disposal
Global Security Newswire- The next two budgets for the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction program now include no funding to finish constructing a chemical weapons disposal facility in Russia (see GSN, Nov. 2, 2006).Washington agreed more than a decade ago to finance construction of the plant at Shchuchye, and has allocated more than $1 billion for the project. However, the estimated cost of the project has risen from roughly $750 million to up to $1.5 billion, said Paul Walker, Legacy Program director at Global Green USA. More.

February 27, 2007

Russia’s Nerpa shipyard scraps one more submarine
ITAR-TASS- The Nerpa shipyard in the Murmansk region has scrapped another multi-purpose nuclear submarine decommissioned from Russia’s Northern Fleet. The submarine’s reactor section has already been prepared for transportation and in summer it will be tugged to Russia’s first-ever coastal long-term storage facility in Saida Bay, the shipyard director, Alexander Gorbunov told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.  More.

France to help modernize radioactive waste site in Severodvinsk
Interfax- The Severodvinsk-based Zvyozdochka federal unitary enterprise and France's Areva TA have signed a contract to upgrade an installation that would be used to burn low- grade solid radioactive wastes resulting from the scrapping of nuclear submarines. More.

February 25, 2007

Kholstov on OPCW Conference, Russian Progress in CW Destruction
ITAR-TASS- At the end of last year, 15 percent of all the stockpiled chemical weapons in Russia had already been destroyed. Viktor Kholstov, the deputy chief of the RF Federal Industry Agency, reported this in an exclusive ITAR-TASS interview. He attended the December session of the Conference of States Party to the Chemical Weapons Convention in The Hague. More.

February 22, 2007

Russian Parliament to Ratify Protocol to CTR Umbrella Agreement
RIA Novosti- Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted Wednesday a protocol to a document that facilitates large-scale cooperation between the United States and Russia on nuclear nonproliferation for ratification by the lower house of parliament. More.

Laying new diplomatic foundations to defeat twenty-first century threats: the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism
US State Department- Not yet two weeks ago, Australia, China, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States -- the thirteen partner nations of the new Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism -- along with the IAEA, gathered together in Ankara, Turkey to rededicate themselves to take action against the most serious threat to international peace and security we face today: a terrorist with a nuclear weapon.  More.

February 15, 2007

Scrapping of Nuclear Submarines is On Agenda
Krasnaya Zvezda- The program of scrapping Russian nuclear submarines is being financed with the assistance of other countries. Of all scrapped submarines, 39 submarines were scrapped at the expense of foreign countries. For instance, Canada is prepared to start financing the scrapping of Russian nuclear submarines in the Far East. More.

February 12, 2007

DOE increases request for GTRI; some say larger boost needed
Nuclear Fuels- DOE last week requested $119.6 million in fiscal 2008 funding for the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, a 10.7% increase from the $106.8 million the department requested a year ago. Congress has not yet set FY-07 funding levels for most federal agencies, including DOE, but a joint funding resolution that was crafted by senior members of both chambers and approved by the House January 31 would give GTRI $115.5 million. The FY-08 DOE request represents a 3.6% increase from that level. More.

February 10, 2007

Nuclear service ships problem hard to tackle, Murmansk seminar agrees
Bellona- Nuclear service vessels remain a vexing problem in Northwest Russia. A large number of these ships have been in a critical condition since they were taken out of operation several years ago. How – and how soon – such vessels will be decommissioned were issues on the agenda of a seminar attended by nuclear industry officials and non-government organisations hosted by Bellona-Murmansk. More.

February 8, 2007

Global Green USA and Green Cross Partners Announce Opening of First Public Outreach and Information Office at Nuclear Weapons Site in Russia
Global Green- Global Green USA, together with Green Cross Switzerland and Green Cross Russia, announces the opening to the public of the first ever Green Cross Public Outreach and Information Office (POIO) at a nuclear weapons dismantlement site in the Russian Federation in the city of Severodvinsk. More.

February 5, 2007

Georgia, Russia Cooperate on Nuclear Smuggling
Associated Press- Georgia's foreign minister said Friday that Moscow and Tbilisi had agreed to cooperate in investigating a nuclear smuggling case that has sparked further friction between the two neighbors. Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said he had discussed by telephone with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov how prosecutors from both countries could work together. More.

February 2, 2007

U.S. to help Georgia combat nuclear smuggling
Reuters- The United States will provide equipment and training to Georgia under an accord on Friday to combat trafficking of radioactive material via the Caucasus state which said last week it jailed a Russian uranium smuggler. Georgia's border patrols and the country's nuclear regulatory agency will be boosted by U.S. specialist technology and training under the agreement signed by Georgia's foreign minister and the U.S. ambassador. More.

149 cases of nuclear trafficking in 2006: IAEA
Press Trust of India- The United Nations atomic watchdog agency has reported 149 incidents of illicit trafficking and other unauthorised activities involving nuclear and radioactive materials in 2006. Of these, 15 involved the seizure of nuclear and radioactive materials from individuals who possessed them illegally, according to preliminary figures released by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Office of Nuclear Security. More.

February 1, 2007

House Bill Boosts 2007 Nonproliferation Funding
NTI- House lawmakers yesterday passed a fiscal 2007 spending bill that increases funding for two nuclear nonproliferation programs by more than $60 million (see GSN, Jan. 5). Congress was able to pass only two appropriations bills as the 2006 session drew to a close, requiring a short-term continuing resolution to keep government employees paid and programs funded through Feb. 15. The bill passed by the House yesterday will set funding levels for the remainder of this fiscal year. A number of defense nuclear nonproliferation programs receive the same funding they did in fiscal 2006 under the long-term continuing resolution, but two received sizable boosts. More.

US agency to up security at Russian nuclear site
Associated Press- The National Nuclear Security Administration said Wednesday it is ready to begin security upgrades on the final Russian nuclear warhead site identified in a 2005 joint statement signed by President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. More.

Kazakh Parliament ratifies agreement with IAEA
Interfax- The Senate, the upper chamber of the Kazakh Parliament, has adopted a bill ratifying an additional protocol to Kazakhstan's agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency on guarantees related to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. More.

January 31, 2007

Russia Remains in Denial Regarding Existence of Nuclear Bazaar
Eurasia Daily Monitor- Last week Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili disclosed that a sting operation had resulted in the February 1, 2006, arrest in Tbilisi of a Russian citizen, Oleg Khintsagov, who had attempted to sell 100 grams of weapons-grade uranium. The Georgian authorities carried out the sting operation to prove that the poorly controlled border between the Russian autonomous republic of North Ossetia and self-proclaimed independent South Ossetia is a channel of massive smuggling that includes nuclear bomb-making material. More.

Delay in building nuclear fuel storage blamed on foreign firms
ITAR-TASS- Chiefs of the Russian and Ukrainian supervisory organizations are equally critical of the way the project for the construction of a storage for spent nuclear fuel in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, financed by the European Union, is being implemented. This is seen from the press release transmitted to Itar-Tass following the talks in Kiev between the head of the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Supervision, Konstantin Pulikovsky, and the head of Ukraine’s State Committee for Nuclear Regulation, Yelena Mikolaichuk.  More.

January 30, 2007

British firm set to upgrade Russian nuclear storage facility
RIA Novosti- A British company is planning to implement a project to upgrade a nuclear waste storage facility in Russia's northwest by the end of 2008, a local administration official said Tuesday. British company Crown Agents Ltd. won a tender to rebuild a Radon storage facility for low-level radioactive waste in the Murmansk Region. The European Union is supporting the project with 4 million euros under the G8 Global Partnership Program. More.

January 29, 2007

America faces bigger risk than agency claims
Chicago Tribune- The U.S. Energy Department is exaggerating its progress in securing tons of nuclear-weapons fuel spread across the globe, a Tribune investigation has found. Among the ways the government overstates its success is through a numbers game that ignores the highly enriched uranium in many reactors around the world.  More.

January 27, 2007

Russian City May Be Source for Uranium
Associated Press- Novosibirsk is located in the depths of Siberia, but despite the remoteness it's one of Russia's main areas for nuclear activity and a cause of concern for those worried about nuclear materials falling into terrorists' hands. More.

Moscow Lashes Out at Georgia Over Uranium Sale
Associated Press- Russia’s foreign minister denounced on Friday the detention of a Russian man accused of trying to sell highly enriched uranium to Georgian agents, calling it a “provocation.” More.

January 26, 2007

Russian: Georgia Uranium Was Weapons-Grade
Associated Press- A top official at a Russian state scientific institute confirmed Friday that Georgia had sent Russia a sample of uranium allegedly seized in a sting operation and that it was weapons-grade, Russian news agencies reported. More.

Russia Silent on Georgian Uranium Sting
Associated Press- Russia responded with silence Thursday after Georgia revealed a foiled effort by a Russian man to sell weapons-grade uranium, an episode that appeared to cast doubt on the nation's ability to halt the black market trade in nuclear materials. More.

January 25, 2007

Georgia Says It Blocked Smuggling of Arms-Grade Uranium
New York Times- Georgian authorities intercepted an illicit shipment of highly enriched uranium last January, the second seizure of weapons-grade material here in two and a half years, officials here say. More.

Smuggler’s Plot Highlights Fear Over Uranium
New York Times- Last January, a Russian man with sunken cheeks and a wispy mustache crossed into Georgia and traveled to Tbilisi by car along a high mountain road. In two plastic bags in his leather jacket, Georgian authorities say, he carried 100 grams of uranium so refined that it could help fuel an atom bomb.  More.

January 15, 2007

New money to eliminate Cold War legacy
PR Newswire- MINISTRY OF DEFENCE News Release (005/2007) issued by The Government News Network on 15 January 2007 National and global security has been boosted by international co-operation to eliminate the legacy of Cold War weapons, Foreign Office Minister Geoff Hoon said today. More.

January 12, 2007

DOE Announces U.S.-Russia Fourth Report on Bratislava Agreement
DOE Press Release- U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel Bodman announced today that he and Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency Director Sergey Kiriyenko have submitted to Presidents Bush and Putin the fourth report of the Senior Interagency Working Group on implementation of the February 2005 Bratislava Checklist. More.

January 8, 2007

Repeal of Nunn-Lugar Restrictions Introduced in the Senate and House
US Fed News- Dick Lugar today introduced legislation to remove restrictions on the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. Similar legislation passed the Senate in the last Congress, but failed to be approved by the House. Temporary waiver of the restrictions has been allowed but has created a maze of paperwork that distracts from the program's mission of destroying nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. More.

December 30, 2006

Putin signs law ratifying RF-France chemical weapons dumping agreement
ITAR-TASS- President Vladimir Putin signed the federal law ratifying the Russian-French intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the disposal of chemical weapons in Russia, the presidential press service said. The State Duma approved the law on December 22, 2006, and the Federation Council approved it on December 27, 2006. More.

December 29, 2006

U.S. and Slovakia To Work Together To Detect Illegal Shipments Of Nuclear And Radioactive Material
NNSA- The U.S. and Slovakian governments will work together in the war on terrorism by installing radiation detection equipment to detect hidden shipments of nuclear and other radioactive material, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced today. More.

December 28, 2006

Russia, U.S. may sign nuclear fuel deal
UPI- The head of Russia's nuclear fuel exporter said a deal to lift trade restrictions imposed by the United States may be signed sometime next year. Vladimir Smirnov, the head of Techsnabexport, was optimistic Russian and U.S. negotiators will wave restrictions on Russian uranium that forces it to be sold through an intermediary or with a 116 percent tax. More.

December 27, 2006

Russia scraps 148 out of 197 decommissioned nuclear submarines
RIA Novosti- Russia has dismantled 148 out of 197 decommissioned Soviet-era nuclear submarines, a Russian Federal Nuclear Power Agency official said Wednesday. "Out of 197 nuclear submarines, 148 have been scrapped," Viktor Akhunov said. More.

December 22, 2006

Our position: The world can't allow terrorists access to radioactive material
Orlando Sentinel- Working together in a secret operation, officials from the United States, Russia and Germany made the world a little safer this week. They transferred almost 600 pounds of abandoned, Soviet-made nuclear material -- enough for up to 10 bombs -- from a former East German research lab to a site in Russia secured with U.S. help. More.

December 19, 2006

NUCLEAR BOMB-GRADE FUEL REMOVED FROM GERMANY; LARGEST SUCH UN-MONITORED OPERATION
United Nations Press Release- Nearly 270 kilos of fresh highly enriched uranium fuel (HEU) that could be used by terrorists to make nuclear explosives have been returned from a German research reactor to Russia in a secret airlift jointly monitored by the United Nations atomic watchdog agency, the largest amount ever transported in such an operation. More.

December 18, 2006

The White House's Cold-War Cleanup Plan
NPR- DAVID KESTENBAUM: In May of 2004, the Bush administration did the sort of thing that happens a lot in Washington but doesn't always work. A group of bunch of sluggish programs together and gave them a new name, the Global Threat Reduction Initiative. How well is it doing? The man in charge gives it high marks.
Mr. LINTON BROOKS (Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration in the Department of Energy): I'm Linton Brooks. I'm the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration in the Department of Energy.
KESTENBAUM: What grade do you give the Global Threat Reduction Initiative?
Mr. BROOKS: I think that they've just performed spectacularly. More.

Russia airlifts enriched uranium out of Germany
Reuters- A Russian experts removed a large quantity of highly enriched uranium from a Soviet-era atomic reactor in eastern Germany on Monday and were flying it to Russia for processing, officials said.
Some 326 kg (717 lb) of enriched uranium was flown out of Germany and was heading toward a processing center in Podolsk, Russia, said Udo Herwig, director of the Rossendorf research center where the material was stored and prepared for transport. More.

December 14, 2006

Inspectors visit Russia chemical weapons disposal facility
ITAR-TASS- A group of international inspectors from the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons arrived at a facility for disposal of war gases in the settlement of Maradykovo, Kirov region, on Thursday. “This is usual planned inspection that is conducted within the framework of procedures envisaged by the international convention on the ban on the development, production and spread of chemical weapons,” the chief of the regional department of convention problems, Mikhail Manin, told ITAR-TASS. More.

December 12, 2006

Low foreign funding could slow Russian chemical weapons destruction program
Associated Press- Russia's Audit Chamber warned Tuesday that lower than expected foreign funding could slow the country's chemical weapons destruction efforts. Russia signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997, the year it was created, pledging to eliminate its arsenal — the world's largest, at 40 million tons — within 10 years. However, the international community agreed to extend the deadline to 2012 because of funding problems, and the destruction program has depended on large injections of foreign money. More.

December 6, 2006

Russia to airlift bomb-grade uranium from Germany
Reuters - Russian experts will airlift 300 kg (660 pounds) of enriched uranium, much of it weapons-grade, from a Soviet-era nuclear research reactor in eastern Germany back to Russia, officials said on Wednesday. More.

Russia eliminates over 15% of chemical wpns stockpiles – official
ITAR-TASS- Deputy head of the Russian Federal Agency for Industry Viktor Kholstov told Itar-Tass in an exclusive interview that at present Russia has eliminated over 15 percent of its total chemical weapons stockpiles. He is taking part in the 11th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons underway in The Hague. More.

December 5, 2006

Russia, Norway to continue cooperation in scrapping nuclear subs
RIA Novosti - Russia's atomic energy agency, Rosatom, said Tuesday that a new five-year agreement it has signed with Norway's Foreign Ministry will further cooperation in dismantling Russian nuclear-powered submarines. More.

Russia upgrades nuclear missiles
BBC News  - Russia says it is deploying a mobile version of its most important long-range nuclear missile. Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said the new Topol-M missiles would be able to penetrate a multi-layered missile defence system. More.

December 4, 2006

Russian watchdog finds no violations in nuclear material storage
RIA Novosti - A check conducted by Russia's nuclear watchdog revealed no violations of the nuclear materials storage and transportation rules, Konstantin Pulikovsky, the watchdog's head, said Monday. More.

November 29, 2006

Czech Republic allots another two million to Russian arms disposal
Prague Monitor- Czech Ambassador to Britain Jan Winkler handed over another two million crowns which the Czech Republic has earmarked for the disposal of Russian chemical weapons to the British Defence Ministry in London today. The Czech Republic had already allotted the same sum three time before - in 2003, 2004 and 2005 - within the Global Partnership against the proliferation of mass destruction weapons project of the seven most developed countries and Russia (G8 group). More.

November 28, 2006

Russia scraps 145 out of 197 decommissioned nuclear submarines
RIA Novosti - Russia has dismantled 145 out of 197 decommissioned Soviet-era nuclear submarines, the head of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power said Tuesday. Russia has signed cooperation agreements on the disposal of decommissioned nuclear submarines with the United States, Britain, Canada, Japan, Italy and Norway. The disposal program will cost an overall $2 billion, toward which Russia had allocated $850 million as of 2005. More.

November 25, 2006

Bombs that won’t go off
Statesman Journal- With North Korea testing a nuclear bomb and Iran suspected of heading in that direction, one might be forgiven for thinking there’s nothing but bad news these days about the spread of nuclear weapons. But behind the scenes, one piece of good news has been unfolding: While there’s a great deal more to do, much of the world’s potential nuclear bomb material, scattered in hundreds of buildings in dozens of countries around the world, is notably more secure than it was before Sept. 11, 2001, which means that it’s harder for terrorists to steal. More.

November 23, 2006

Canada Works Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction
Government of Canada Newsroom- The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, today tabled in Parliament the annual report on Canada’s contribution to the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction. More.

Activist Alleges Russia Arms Plant Spill
Associated Press- An environmental activist alleged Thursday that highly toxic chemicals had accidentally spilled from weapons being reprocessed at a central Russian plant. Russian officials, however, denied there was a spill at the Maradykovsky complex. Lev Fyodorov, the head of the Union for Chemical Safety in Moscow, said several aviation bomb casings had ruptured last week during reprocessing and that toxic liquid had spilled onto the ground. More.

November 19, 2006

Russia, U.S. to put forward coordinated nonproliferation initiative - Lavrov
Interfax- Russian and U.S. presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush reaffirmed in Hanoi their commitment to accelerate work to dovetail the two countries' initiatives in strengthening the nonproliferation regime, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the press. More.

November 13, 2006

Rail missile launcher scrapped in Russia city
Moscow News- Operations to scrap the ninth launcher a rail-borne missile system began at a facility for liquidation of strategic weapons in Bryansk on Monday. Rail mobile launchers whose service life in the Russian Strategic Missile Troops ended, are turned over to organisations of the Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) for scrapping, a Roskosmos official told ITAR-TASS.  More.

November 12, 2006

Russia to Keep Its Heaviest ICBM in Service for Another Decade
Moscow News- The Russian missile forces chief said that the military had decided to keep its heaviest intercontinental ballistic missiles in service for another decade, The Associated Press news agency reported. More.

November 8, 2006

Nuclear, cyber terrorism mix greatest threat to the world - Russian expert
Interfax - The mix of nuclear terrorism and cyber-terrorism could become the most dangerous type of a terrorist threat, Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Valentin Sobolev has said. "An interconnection between nuclear terrorism and cyber-terrorism
could have a global catastrophic nature. The likelihood of this is not
an invention. More.

November 7, 2006

U.S., Russia push for wider enforcement of nonproliferation resolution
Associated Press- The United States and Russia pushed Wednesday for wider global enforcement of a U.N. resolution meant to choke the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. U.N. Security Council Resolution 1540, adopted in April 2004, requires all U.N. members to pass laws preventing terrorists and black marketeers from dealing in weapons of mass destruction, the materials to make them and the missiles and other systems to deliver them. More.

November 3, 2006

Disposal of famous Soviet nuclear sub begins with Canadian funding
Russia & CIS General Newswire- Zvyozdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk has started the disposal of the B-244 multipurpose nuclear submarine of the Viktor III class, according to NATO classification, its press service told Interfax. More.

November 2, 2006

Russia, U.S. Discuss New Path for CW Disposal Plant
Global Security Newswire- U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction officials met with their Russian counterparts yesterday to discuss a new strategy to enable work to resume on the unfinished chemical weapon destruction plant at Shchuchye. More.

November 1, 2006

Report: Moscow on track to destroy chemical weapons on schedule
Associated Press- A top Russian arms control official said Wednesday that Moscow was on track to destroy 20 percent of its chemical weapons arsenal by April, the target date set by the world body overseeing the campaign to rid the world of the toxins, Russian news agencies reported. More.

October 31, 2006

Russia to place Angarsk plant under IAEA control - Kiriyenko
TASS- Russia has prepared documents for removing the Angarsk petrochemical plant from a list of strategic enterprises, the chief of the Federal Agency of Atomic Energy, Sergei Kiriyenko, said. He told the Moscow Energy Dialogue conference on Tuesday that this was done in order to provide access of foreign specialists to the plant. More.

Russian Official Urges Boosting Anti-Nuclear Initiative
ITAR-TASS- The Global Initiative To Combat Nuclear Terrorism is fully in line with Russia's long-term interests of security, Russian Federation Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Kislyak told ITAR-TASS today. Kislyak is co-chairing with Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Robert Joseph the first meeting of the countries participating in the initiative. The meeting opened in Rabat on Monday [30 October]. More.

October 27, 2006

Rosatom Report: Moscow plans new private nuke plants across Russia
Bellona Foundation- A document obtained by the Russian environmental organisation Ekozashchita! reveals that the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) is engaged in negotiations with regional authorities and investors on the construction of new nuclear power plants that will be owned by private hands across the country, including one near St. Petersburg. More.

October 25, 2006

Transport of nuclear materials requires more public awareness and legislation
Bellona Foundation- St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly Deputy Natalya Yevdokimova said earlier this week that it is essential to adopt a federal law that will end confusion over the transportation of nuclear materials, some 50,000 tonnes of which roll through the city of 4.5 million inhabitants each year. More.

Security Upgrades Completed Two Years Ahead of Schedule At 50 Russian Sites With Nuclear Materials or Weapons
NNSA- The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has completed security enhancements to protect against theft or terrorist attacks at 50 Russian navy nuclear sites two years ahead of schedule. This achievement signifies the completion of nuclear material protection, control and accounting upgrades at all Navy-affiliated sites in the Russian Federation that contain nuclear materials or warheads. More.

October 19, 2006

Nuclear waste poses Arctic threat
BBC News- Russia marks the centenary of its submarine fleet this week - but one part of its legacy is no cause for celebration.
For almost half a century, the Northern Fleet has operated two-thirds of the navy's nuclear-powered vessels. More.

October 13, 2006

Concern Grows Over Nuclear Fuel Shipments
St. Petersburg Times- As Western European countries examine opportunities to send more spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing in Russia, St. Petersburg's strategic location means much more of it would pass through the city. At present, cargo containing radioactive material passes through St. Petersburg at least ten times a month, said Alexander Shishkin, director of Isotope, a state-owned enterprise responsible for such shipments. More.

October 12, 2006

Long-term storage facility for SNF from nuclear icebreakers opens at Atomflot in Murmansk
Bellona- The Murmansk Region has accumulated a large amount of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear icebreakers. The spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is being stored in floating technical bases – three highly radioactive nuclear service ships called the Lotta, the Imandra, and the Lepse – as neither regional authorities nor the country as a whole have suitable storage facilities. More.

Experts: N. Korean Test Shouldn't Stall Broad Nonproliferation Efforts
Newhouse News Service- North Korea's apparent nuclear test shouldn't slow a growing U.S. effort to help other countries possibly even North Korea itself get rid of their nuclear weapons, arms control experts say. Congress and the Bush administration increasingly look to nonproliferation aid as a way to reduce terrorists' access to weapons of mass destruction. Former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., set up a program in 1991 to help the former Soviet Union safeguard its nuclear stockpiles, and in recent years that program has expanded. More.

Russia, Kazakhstan set up JV to enrich uranium - nuclear agency
RIA Novosti- Russia and Kazakhstan have established their first joint venture to enrich uranium, in the Siberian city of Angarsk near Irkutsk, Russia's nuclear power agency said Thursday. Earlier in the month, the countries' presidents agreed that the Central Asian country would contribute to initiatives on forming international centers providing nuclear fuel cycle services in Russia. More.

October 11, 2006

Russia to discuss nuclear waste disposal projects with IAEA
RIA Novosti- Russia's federal nuclear power agency said Wednesday it would meet with officials from the UN nuclear watchdog later this week to discuss cooperation in scrapping Russian nuclear submarines, and building radioactive waste storage facilities. More.

October 9, 2006

Italian delegation to discuss nuclear cruiser scrapping prospects in Severodvinsk
Russia & CIS Military Newswire- An Italian delegation will hold talks with specialists of the Zvyozdochka enterprise in Severodvinsk on Monday concerning preparations for the unloading of spent nuclear fuel from a heavy nuclear-powered cruiser (board number 090, formerly Admiral Ushakov). More.

Defense bill backs MOX program, with conditions on DOE spending
Platts- Congress in September passed an authorization bill expressing qualified support for the construction of a facility to make reactor fuel out of US surplus weapons plutonium. The language on the mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel fabrication facility is part of the fiscal 2007 National Defense Authorization Act and adds another element to a House-Senate debate over funding for construction of the plant. More.

October 3, 2006

Kazakhstan to join Russia uranium enrichment centers initiative
RIA Novosti - Kazakhstan will join an initiative to set up international uranium enrichment centers in Russia, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday. At a joint conference with President Nursultan Nazarbayev in the Kazakh city of Uralsk, near the Russian border, Putin said his Kazakh counterpart had agreed that the Central Asian country would contribute to initiatives on forming international centers providing nuclear fuel cycle services in Russia. More.

Putin ratifies international convention against nuclear terror
Interfax - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill ratifying the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, a press release posted on the president's official website says. More.

September 29, 2006

U.S. Department of Energy and NTI Announce Key Nonproliferation Project with Kazakhstan
DOE Press Release - The U.S. Department of Energy and the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) today announced that they have reached an important agreement-in-principle with the Government of Kazakhstan to move forward with the down-blending of highly enriched uranium (HEU) currently stored at Kazakhstan’s Institute of Nuclear Physics. The agreement also calls for the conversion of the VVR-K research reactor to operate on low enriched uranium fuel instead of HEU, which can be used in nuclear weapons. More.

Bill summary, Defense Authorization Act FY 2007
Office of Senator John Warner- In the area of nonproliferation and cooperative threat reduction, the conferees:
- Authorized $1.7 billion for the Department of Energy (DOE) nonproliferation programs.
- Authorized the requested amount of $372.1 million for the Department of Defense Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program. More.

UK funds £21m safe store for historic Soviet spent nuclear fuel
Department of Trade and Industry (UK)- IHazardous spent nuclear fuel, currently stored on a ship, will now be safely transferred to secure storage, thanks to a new UK-funded facility opened today by His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent at Atomflot in Murmansk, Russia. The storage facility, valued at over £21m, is the largest completed project under the UK's Global Partnership programme. It is the first of its kind in Russia to fully comply with Russian and International Atomic Energy authority standards. More.

September 27, 2006

Former Russian nuclear chief proclaims innocence after partner pleads guilty to U.S. charges
Associated Press - Russia's former atomic energy minister Yevgeny Adamov proclaimed his innocence again Wednesday on U.S. charges of tax evasion and money laundering, two days after his former partner pleaded guilty to similar charges in a U.S. court. More.

Is an atomic Georgia on the cards?
The Messenger- While visiting Berlin recently Speaker of Parliament Nino Burjanadze and advisor to the president on economic issues, former Estonian prime minister Mart Laar, strongly hinted at the possibility of building a nuclear power station in Georgia. More.

September 25, 2006

Serbia to relocate nuclear waste to Russia
United Press International - Serbia's science minister says nuclear waste from the Vinca Institute near Belgrade will be completely relocated to Russia by the end of 2008. Aleksandar Popovic, minister for science and environment, Monday told reporters repacking of 2.5 tons of the nuclear fuel waste will be carried out by three Russian companies over the next 12 months. More.

Man pleads in Russia nuclear cash case
Seattle Post-Intelligencer- A former nuclear engineer accused of helping a former Russian official steal more than $9 million earmarked for improving the safety of that country's Chernobyl-style reactors pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy and tax evasion. More.

September 22, 2006

9 billion rubles to be appropriated for the construction of a chemical weapons elimination plant in the Penza region
Regnum Information Agency [unofficial translation]- 9 billion rubles will be appropriated for the construction of a chemical weapons elimination plant in the Penza region. As the IA Regnum correspondent was informed in the regional government’s press-center, up to 10% of this amount is to be directed toward infrastructure development. More.

September 20, 2006

US-Russia effort to contain nuclear experts fades
Christian Science Monitor- At a Moscow conference in 2000 on stopping the global migration of nuclear-weapons know-how, a Russian security official revealed that Taliban envoys had tried to recruit a Russian nuclear expert. That expert didn't go to work for the Afghan regime. But three of his colleagues did leave their institute for other nations - and Russian officials had no idea which ones, US experts say. More.

September 19, 2006

Russia, IAEA to start setting up intl. uranium enrichment center
RIA Novosti- The IAEA supports Russia's proposal to set up an international uranium enrichment center, the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog said Tuesday. Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he had met with Russia's nuclear chief, Sergei Kiriyenko, to discuss the proposal.  More.

September 18, 2006

Russia hails U.S. nuclear initiative, IAEA efforts - Kiriyenko
RIA Novosti- Russia's nuclear chief said Monday that Moscow welcomed a proposal made by the United States on global partnership as another step toward securing non-proliferation in the nuclear sector. More.

U.S. and Russia Sign Plutonium Protocol, but implementation issues remain
Moscow Times- The United States and Russia have resolved a major hurdle in their negotiations to dispose of tons of excess plutonium, announcing an agreement on a severe liability issue that has stymied the program for years. More.

Lawless region's vote on joining Russia rattles West
Daily Telegraph - Moldova's breakaway region of Trans-dniestr voted yesterday in an internationally unrecognised referendum to decide whether one of Europe's most lawless corners will become part of Russia. Western officials fear the vote could sour relations with Moscow, spread instability in the former Soviet Union and hamper efforts to diminish the access of terrorists to a vast stockpile of unmonitored weapons. More.

UN nuclear watchdog ponders international 'fuel bank'
Christian Science Monitor- As the International Atomic Energy Agency meets this week for its 50th congress, a key focus will be a vision even older than the UN nuclear watchdog itself: the creation of a world nuclear-fuel "bank." Such a bank would store enriched uranium vital for nuclear energy - fissile material that, if enriched further, could make an atomic bomb. More.

September 17, 2006

Terrorist access to Serbian nuclear site feared
Washington Times- More than two tons of radioactive material stored in a rundown research facility in Serbia offer an easy target for terrorists seeking to build a "dirty bomb," according to the United Nations' nuclear watchdog.  More.

September 15, 2006

Signing of U.S.-Russian Plutonium Disposition Liability Protocol
US State Department- The United States and Russia today, September 15, 2006, signed a protocol that provides a framework for resolving liability issues for an important nonproliferation program to convert excess weapon-grade plutonium into forms unusable for weapons by terrorists or others. More.

Duma ratifies International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism
Interfax - The Russian State Duma ratified the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism on Friday. President Vladimir Putin signed the Convention on behalf of Russia at the UN headquarters in New York on September 14, 2005. More.

September 12, 2006

Russia set to dismantle 5 nuclear submarines by 2010
RIA Novosti- Russia will scrap five nuclear submarines decommissioned from the Pacific Fleet by 2010 under a joint project with Japan, a Japanese deputy foreign minister said Tuesday. The Victor class vessels will be dismantled under the Star of Hope program for the dismantlement of decommissioned nuclear submarines in Russia's Far East, which was adopted in 2003 during a visit of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to Russia. More.

New Facility To Destroy Weapons
St. Petersburg Times- Engineers covered in head-to-toe protective gear inserted a neutralizing solution Friday into bombs filled with a nerve agent, officially starting the work of Russia's first plant for destroying the deadly chemicals. The opening of the Maradykovsky plant accelerates Russia's campaign to eliminate the world's largest arsenal of the toxins.   More.

September 8, 2006

Lawmakers Mixed on Nuclear Funding
Arms Control Today- As Congress nears the end of its session this fall, lawmakers still must hash out the next annual budget for the U.S. nuclear complex. One area of general agreement is boosting funding for a new category of nuclear warhead, but lawmakers are divided on spending for dismantling older weapons and disposing of excess U.S. and Russian nuclear materials.   More.

5 ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia sign nuclear free zone treaty
International Herald Tribune- The five ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia signed a treaty on Friday to create a nuclear-free zone in the strategic energy-rich region north of Iran and Afghanistan....Under the treaty, the Central Asian nations also commit themselves to enhanced International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards regarding security of nuclear facilities and radioactive waste — something that could ease concerns about possible use of the region as a source or transit corridor for smuggling nuclear materials.   More.

Russia set to destroy chemical stockpiles on schedule - official
RIA Novosti- Russia is ready to meet its international obligations on the destruction of its chemical weapons stockpiles, a Kremlin official said Friday. The first part of a chemical weapons destruction plant in the central Kirov Region, about 550 miles northeast of Moscow, became operational today.  More.

September 2006

NNSA Working To Prevent Nuclear Terrorism
NNSA Fact Sheet- The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which has unique expertise in nuclear weapons and nuclear material, plays a key role in the U.S. government’s comprehensive effort to combat terrorism. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, NNSA has doubled spending on nuclear nonproliferation programs. More.

September 7, 2006

Russian Nuclear Arsenal Will Be Upgraded by 2009
The Moscow Times- The military will complete security upgrades of its nuclear arsenal by late 2009 to further guard it against terrorists, a senior general said this week. More.

September 5, 2006

Kiev to study public opinion on proposed nuclear waste storage
RIA Novosti- Ukraine's fuel and energy minister said Tuesday the country will make a decision whether or not to build a spent nuclear fuel storage facility after a thorough expert analysis and with account taken of public opinion. More.

The Clock is Ticking To Secure Serbia's Bomb-Grade Waste
IAEA News- On the outskirts of Serbia's capital Belgrade, nuclear weapons-grade waste sits in a pool of murky water. It is potential material to make dirty bombs: lots of them. An IAEA Inspector team is at the Vinca facility, a shut-down research reactor at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences, to check that none of it is missing. More.

Nuclear weapons safeguarding improved in Russia
ITAR TASS- The Russian Defense Ministry will complete within two-three years the modernization of safeguarding systems of nuclear weapons facilities, the chief of the ministry’s 12th Directorate, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Verkhovtsev, said in an interview with the military daily Krasnaya Zvezda published on Tuesday. More.