Global Security Newswire

The United States, the Netherlands and Kazakhstan last week conducted a training workshop that focused on the detection, accounting and transit of radioactive materials inside the Central Asian state, the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration announced (see GSN, May 5).

The NNSA Global Threat Reduction Initiative workshop was aimed at teaching Kazakh officials how to secure vulnerable radiological material that could be put to weapons uses.

Funding was provided by the Netherlands, and the workshop included officials from the Dutch Embassy to Kazakhstan, the U.S. nuclear agency and various Kazakh entities.

"Kazakhstan has a long history of responsibility with nuclear issues," said a Kazakh official in provided remarks. "From President [Nursultan] Nazarbayev's historic decision to renounce and relinquish nuclear weapons upon the independence of Kazakhstan, to our participation in these exercises and cooperation with the [International Atomic Energy Agency], Kazakhstan is committed to responsible stewardship of our nuclear and radioactive legacy and materials. This workshop helps prove our commitment and ensure radiological material is kept safe and secure."

Kazakhstan and the United States have also partnered on a number of other nuclear security projects, including an effort to safely secure in excess of 10 metric tons of highly enriched uranium and 3 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium once held at a nuclear reactor in Aktau; the continuing retrofitting of an HEU research reactor at the Institute of Nuclear Physics to use low-enriched uranium and the removal of all highly enriched uranium from the reactor; enhancing the protections surrounding radiological and nuclear sources; fielding radiation monitors at Kazakh seaports; and the employment of one-time nuclear weapons scientists in peaceful enterprises (U.S. National Nuclear Security Agency release, June 13).