Corey Hinderstein
Vice President, International Fuel Cycle Strategies
Cultivating Confidence: Verification, Monitoring, and Enforcement for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons
The book Cultivating Confidence: Verification, Monitoring, and Enforcement for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Threat Initiative, 2010) offers the reader guidelines for policymaking that will ultimately reduce nuclear dangers throughout the world. Although important work has been done over the years to define major mileposts on the path to disarmament, there are still a number of key areas—including verification—that contain gaps in the conceptual framework and technical details. This study, which focuses on the key issues associated with verifying, monitoring, and enforcing, offers some possible solutions to these challenges.
The key topics discussed include:
- The political dimensions of determining effective verification and enforcing of the rules in a nuclear weapon-free world
- Fostering the confidence of non-nuclear weapon states in verification
- Verifying the nonproduction and elimination of fissile material for nuclear weapons
- Verifying the dismantlement of nuclear weapons and the nonproduction of new nuclear weapons
- Verifying reductions and elimination of tactical nuclear weapons
- The role of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a world that is reducing stockpiles of nuclear weapons
- The role and responsibility of the civil sector in managing trade in specialized materials
Edited by Corey Hinderstein
Contributors: Steven P. Andreasen, Everet H. Beckner, James Fuller, Steinar Høibråten, Edward Ifft, Halvor Kippe, Harold Müller, Annette Schaper, Thomas E. Shea, Ralf Wirtz
The contributors are among the top international experts in the field, many having worked at high levels in governments, in national laboratories, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
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Glossary
- Non-nuclear weapon state (NNWS)
- Non-nuclear weapon state (NNWS): Under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), NNWS are states that had not detonated a nuclear device prior to 1 January 1967, and who agree in joining the NPT to refrain from pursuing nuclear weapons (that is, all state parties to the NPT other than the United States, the Soviet Union/Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China).
- Fissile material
- Fissile material: A type of fissionable material capable of sustaining a chain reaction by undergoing fission upon the absorption of low-energy (or thermal) neutrons. Uranium-235, Plutonium-239, and Uranium-233 are the most prominently discussed fissile materials for peaceful and nuclear weapons purposes.
- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
- IAEA: Founded in 1957 and based in Vienna, Austria, the IAEA is an autonomous international organization in the United Nations system. The Agency’s mandate is the promotion of peaceful uses of nuclear energy, technical assistance in this area, and verification that nuclear materials and technology stay in peaceful use. Article III of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) requires non-nuclear weapon states party to the NPT to accept safeguards administered by the IAEA. The IAEA consists of three principal organs: the General Conference (of member states); the Board of Governors; and the Secretariat. For additional information, see the IAEA.