 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
Updated December 2009
Introduction
Uzbekistan does not possess nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons and is party to all relevant nonproliferation-related arms control treaties. Since independence, Uzbekistan has cooperated with international efforts to dismantle chemical and biological weapons facilities left on its territory after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
 |
|
||||||||||||
Nuclear
Uzbekistan does not possess nuclear weapons, though tactical nuclear weapons may have been present on its territory during the Soviet era. In March 2008, as part of the efforts to reduce highly enriched uranium under the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, an Uzbek research reactor near Tashkent was converted to low-enriched uranium fuel. Removals of Russian-origin enriched uranium fuel from Uzbekistan took place twice. In 2004, nearly 11 kilograms of Russian-origin enriched uranium fuel, including three kilograms of HEU, were repatriated to Russia to be downblended into low-enriched fuel suitable for use in nuclear power reactors. In 2006, 63 kilograms of spent fuel were similarly removed. The second research reactor in Tashkent was dismantled in the 1990s. Uzbekistan is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Uzbek President Islam Karimov formally proposed the creation of a Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone at the 48th session of the UN General Assembly in 1993. The foreign ministers of the five Central Asian States--Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan--signed a treaty establishing a Central Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone (CANWFZ) on September 8, 2006. Uzbekistan ratified the treaty in April 2007. Tashkent also joined the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism in April 2008.
See Uzbekistan Nuclear Profile
Biological
Uzbekistan has inherited several former BW facilities from Soviet times. In Tashkent, the Institute of Virology now focuses its research on human viral diseases, while the Tashkent Center for Prophylaxis and Quarantine of Most Hazardous Diseases specializes in research on bacterial diseases. The later institute once was part of the Soviet anti-plaque system. Both institutes house extensive collections of microorganisms, including dangerous pathogens. For example, the Institute of Virology has a collection of various hemorrhagic fever viruses, such as the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus. The Tashkent Center for Prophylaxis and Quarantine of Most Hazardous Diseases has collections of various types of bacteria, including those that cause plague, brucellosis, anthrax, and tularemia.
The largest Soviet BW field-testing facility was located on Vozrozhdeniye Island, now a peninsula, in the Aral Sea. Most of the BW infrastructure is located on the two-thirds of the peninsula that lies within Uzbekistan's territory. During the Soviet era, Vozrozhdeniye Island was used to test weapons armed with pathogens that cause anthrax, plague, tularemia and smallpox. Under the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program, Uzbekistan and the United States agreed on a two-stage project to clean up the island and dismantle its BW facility. In May 2002, a team from the U.S. Defense Reduction Agency opened 11 concrete-lined pits containing anthrax slurries and mixed the soil with a decontamination agent under the first stage of the joint U.S.-Uzbek project. The second stage of the project consisted of dismantling the BW facility. Uzbekistan is a party to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).
Chemical
Uzbekistan inherited one Soviet-era CW facility, the Chemical Research Institute, located near the city of Nukus in western Uzbekistan. It had a one-cubic-meter reactor vessel with a one-ton production capacity per day. The facility was equipped with high-containment laboratories, an aerosol test chamber, and a wind tunnel used to model the dispersion of chemical agents. The facility also had an open-air test site. Operated by the Red Army, the test site was used to field-test various chemical agents. The binary agent Novichok might also have been tested on the site. Under a May 1999 implementing agreement signed by Uzbekistan and the United States, the CTR program provided $8.5 million for the dismantlement of the Chemical Research Institute. Dismantlement was completed in June 2002. Uzbekistan is a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), but not the Australia Group.
Missile
Uzbekistan does not possess a ballistic missile program, though it does have the industrial capacity to produce related components and technologies. Uzbekistan is party to the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). It has one inspectable facility under the INF, but does not participate in inspections.
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 © 2010 by MIIS.
