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United States, Russia Agree to Nuclear Security Enhancements By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — The United States and Russia agreed today to enhance efforts to improve security at Russian nuclear sites and to secure nuclear materials in other countries (see GSN, Feb. 22). U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to the plan while meeting in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava. The United States and Russia “bear a special responsibility for the security of nuclear weapons and fissile material, in order to ensure that there is no possibility such weapons or materials would fall into terrorist hands,” Bush and Putin said in a joint statement. Under today’s agreement, U.S. and Russian experts will share best practices for improving nuclear site security, and will jointly initiate security consultations with other countries. The United States and Russia will hold a bilateral nuclear security workshop later this year on personnel and technical security issues to help “enhance the ‘security culture’” in both countries, says a White House fact sheet released after the meeting. “While the security of U.S. and Russian nuclear facilities meet current requirements, the presidents stressed that these requirements must be constantly enhanced to counter evolving terrorist threats. To this end, the presidents agreed to develop a plan of work through and beyond 2008 for cooperation on security upgrades of nuclear facilities,” the fact sheet says. The CIA has recently highlighted the potential threat posed by poor security at Russian nuclear sites. Las week, agency Director Porter Goss testified before the Senate intelligence committee that enough Russian nuclear material was unaccounted for to produce a nuclear weapon if it were obtained by terrorists. Bush said following the meeting that he and Putin had agreed on the need to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of Iran and North Korea. “We agreed that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. And I appreciate Vladimir’s understanding on that issue,” Bush said in a joint press conference with Putin. “We agreed that North Korea should not have a nuclear weapon.” The two leaders also agreed today to continue cooperation on developing new types of low-enriched uranium fuel for use in research reactors around the world. Such fuel would be used to replace highly enriched uranium fuel that could be used in nuclear weapons. They also agreed to continue efforts to repatriate U.S.- and Russian-origin fresh and spent HEU fuel from research reactors in other countries. Both measures are part of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative which the two nations launched last year (see GSN, Sept. 22). In addition, the United States and Russia agreed to improve cooperation on preventing and responding to possible acts of nuclear or radiological terrorism, including the development of new means of detecting radioactive materials. Bush and Putin also pledged to seek full implementation among U.N. members of Security Council resolution 1540, which calls on countries to implement national measures to prevent proliferation; and to seek “early adoption” of U.N. conventions on nuclear terrorism and nuclear material protection (see GSN, Feb. 16). The U.S.-Russian agreement creates a bilateral Senior Interagency Group, chaired by the two countries’ top atomic energy officials, which will oversee cooperative efforts to improve nuclear security. The group’s first progress report on nuclear security efforts is due in July. During a press conference following his meeting with Putin, Bush praised the “positive results” that had been achieved at the talks. “We have had over the past four years very constructive relations, and that’s the way I'm going to keep it for the next four years as well. We’ve had an open and candid exchange of views and positions,” Bush said. In a seeming reference to growing concerns about authoritarian trends in Russia, Putin said that shared U.S.-Russian interests, including international security issues, are “not affected by the circumstances of the moment or the constellation of political interests.” “Therefore, we can see no alternative to the consistent strengthening of the Russia-U.S. relationship,” Putin said.
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