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Updated March 2009
Introduction
Independent for three years (1918-1921) following the Russian revolution, Georgia was forcibly incorporated into the USSR until the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. As part of its Soviet legacy, Georgia possesses a decommissioned nuclear reactor and three nuclear research institutes, as well as a number of military bases contaminated with radioactive waste. Nonproliferation issues concerning Georgia stem primarily from the area of export controls.Georgia does not possess or produce nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons, but the country's industrial and medical sectors use components that could also be used in WMD systems.
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Nuclear
Georgia is home to three nuclear research institutes.The Andronikashvili Institute of Physics in Tbilisi houses a nonoperational IRT-M research reactor.All fresh and spent fuel was transferred from the reactor facility to Scotland in April 1998 under a multinational effort known as Operation Auburn Endeavor.The High Energy Physics Institute in Tbilisi is not known to house fissile material.The Sukhumi I. Vekua Institute of Physics & Technology (SIPT) was relocated from Sukhumi to Tbilisi due to the Abkhazian conflict.There are reports that SIPT once housed isotope production reactors and/or 2kg of 90% enriched uranium, though the whereabouts of the HEU is not known. Georgia is party to both the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).In addition, on 6 June 2003, Georgia ratified an Additional Protocol to the NPT.
Biological
Georgia acceded to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) on 22
May 1996. There is no evidence to suggest that Tbilisi possesses or is
developing biological weapons. During the Soviet era, some vaccine manufacturing
facilities in Georgia that were part of the Soviet Anti-Plague system possessed
dual-use biological weapons production capabilities. The Biokombinat Production
facility, for example, manufactured vaccines for sheep pox, swine plague, and
sheep brucellosis, but also doubled as a biological weapons research facility.
Under the 30 December 2002 agreement between the United States and Georgia on
cooperation in the area of prevention of proliferation of technology, pathogens
and expertise related to the development of biological weapons, all dual-use
equipment and selected buildings at Biokombinat were eliminated.. Also, the U.S.
Department of Defense through its contractor Bechtel National Inc. completed
construction of the Epidemiological Monitoring Station at a Ministry of
Agriculture laboratory in Tbilisi and installed the Pathogen Asset Control
System at the National Center for Disease Control and the interim Central
Reference Laboratory (CRL). Meanwhile, construction of the CRL and repository in
Tbilisi and the Epidemiological Monitoring Station at the Kutaisi Regional
Veterinary Laboratory in Kutaisi continues.
Chemical
Georgia is a founding member of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). There is no evidence to suggest that Georgia possesses or is pursuing chemical weapons.
Missile
Georgia subscribes to the International Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation and does not possess ballistic missile systems.
This
material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin Center for
Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and
does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently
verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2009
by MIIS.
